FOOTNOTES:

A great campaign of education is needed in the schools and colleges, in the press and pulpit and in every organization of men and women that stands for progress. Pre-eminently among women's organizations, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which opposes the injustice of refusing the ballot to women, should stand against the grossest of all injustices which leaves innocent women widowed and children orphaned by war, and which in time of peace diverts nearly two-thirds of the federal revenue from constructive work to payment for past wars and preparation for future wars. Thus far this association has been so absorbed in its direct methods of advancing suffrage that it has not perhaps sufficiently realized the power of many agencies that are furthering its cause by indirect means. I firmly believe that substituting statesmanship for battleship will do more to remove the electoral injustices that still prevent our being a democracy than any direct means used to obtain woman suffrage, important and necessary as these are. Women, though hating war, quite as frequently as men are deluded by the plea that peace can be ensured only by huge armaments. It is a question whether woman suffrage would greatly lessen the vote for these supposed preventives of war, but there is no question that more reliance on reason and less on force would exalt respect for woman and would remove the objection that woman's physical inferiority has anything to do with suffrage.

Several delegates expressed the need and the right of mothers to strive to prevent war. Mrs. Duniway, Mrs. Philena Everett Johnson and Mrs. DeVoe spoke on the pending amendment campaigns in their respective States of Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby's subject was the American Situation vs. the English Situation and she described the conditions in England which caused the "suffragette" or "militant" movement. Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman of the Industrial Committee, spoke on the Wage Earning Woman and the Ballot. "Because of the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Oregon case," she said, "fourteen State Legislatures in the past year have considered bills for shortening the workday for women and six have enacted laws for it. South Carolina has taken a step backward by changing the hours from ten to twelve. Child labor is constantly increasing in spite of our efforts. I have seen the evolution of modern industry and it has meant the sacrifice of thousands of young lives." At theclose of the afternoon session the delegates enjoyed an automobile ride of many miles amidst scenery which many who had travelled widely declared was unsurpassed in the whole world.

The most brilliant session of the convention probably was that of the College Women's Evening, with Dr. Shaw presiding. Miss Caroline Lexow (N. Y.), secretary of the College Women's League, spoke of its remarkable growth since its organization the preceding year and said that it now had twenty-four branches in as many States and twenty-five chapters in as many colleges. She called attention to the fact that no College Anti-Suffrage Association had ever been formed and said that college women remembered the words of one of the pioneers: "Make the best use you can of your freedom for we have bought it at a great price." Mrs. Eva Emery Dye (Ore.) gave an able address on College Women in Civic Life. The Law and the Woman was the subject considered by Miss Adella M. Parker, a popular lawyer, president of the Washington College League. "I have been looking for years," she said, "to find any legislation that does not affect women, from a tariff on gloves to a declaration of war. The great problems which face the human race demand the genius of both men and women to solve them. The law needs women quite as much as women need the law." The closing address on College Women and Democracy by Frances Squire Potter, professor of English at the University of Minnesota, was a masterly review of the relation of college women to the life of the present, and later it was printed by the College League as a part of its literature. In the course of it she said:

The admission of women began with Oberlin, Ohio, in 1833, then a provincial institution, religious in its purpose and one where the boys and girls did the work. From that time on the West was committed to the co-educational State university. The influence set back eastward and women demanded admittance successively in this college and that college. It is to be remembered that they did not go in naturally and pleasantly but at the point of the sword and to the sound of the trumpet. And to-day the segregated college life of the East illustrates the "last entrenchments of the middle ages." Those monasteries and nunneries of learning crown the hilltops from Boston to Washington and "watch the star of intellectual empire westward take its way." ... Following upon the democratization of the university we now see rising a tide which is asinevitable as was that first movement, which will bear the college woman, as it bears the college man, out of the fostering shelter of the college hall into the great welter of life, of full citizenship.... Since the colleges of America opened to women, nothing so vital to the nourishment of this spirit has happened as the formation of the College Equal Suffrage League.... There are certain definite things for which a college woman registers herself in joining this league. First, a direct return to the country of the energy which it has trained. A woman's whole education to-day is toward direct results. She has been educated away from the old indirect ideal of the boarding-school. There she was taught to be a persuasive ornament, now she is taught to be an individual mind, will and conscience and to use these in acting herself. I hold that there is no more graphic illustration of inconsistent waste than the spectacle of a college-trained woman falsifying her entire education by shying away from suffrage.... The time has gone by when a college woman can be allowed to be noncommittal on this subject. If she has not thought about equal suffrage she must do so now, exactly as persons of intelligence were compelled to think about slavery in the time of Garrison, or about the reformation in the time of Martin Luther. To those who try to get out of it it is not unfitting to quote Thomas Huxley's famous sentence: "He who will not reason is a bigot; he who dare not reason is a coward; he who can not reason is a fool." ...It devolves upon the college woman more than upon any other one type to face and conquer a retarding tendency which is becoming marked in this country. I refer to the anti-feminization movement. Dr. Stanley Hall has given voice to it in education; Dr. Lyman Abbott quavers about it in religion; the committee on tariff revision is an example of it in politics. When women sent a petition to the committee against raising the duties on certain necessities of life of which they were the chief consumers, the chairman said: "It doesn't make any difference whether these women send in a petition signed by 500 or 5,000 names, they will receive no consideration. Let them talk things over in their clubs and other organizations; this will occupy them and do no one any harm; but it will not affect the tariff." On the same day the committee accorded a deferential hearing to a deputation of lumbermen.... This discrimination against woman, the vague feeling that she has been allowed to get on too fast, to get out of control, that she has slipped into too large activities while the good man slept, has come upon us at the very time when Scandinavia and Germany and England are getting rid of their simian chivalry. It is notorious that America, which once was the progressive nation, has been for a generation in a comatose state in the matter of social ideas. It is high time that our college women should stand solid against the blind superstition, whose mother is fear and whose father is egoism, that women can not be trusted in public affairs....

It devolves upon the college woman more than upon any other one type to face and conquer a retarding tendency which is becoming marked in this country. I refer to the anti-feminization movement. Dr. Stanley Hall has given voice to it in education; Dr. Lyman Abbott quavers about it in religion; the committee on tariff revision is an example of it in politics. When women sent a petition to the committee against raising the duties on certain necessities of life of which they were the chief consumers, the chairman said: "It doesn't make any difference whether these women send in a petition signed by 500 or 5,000 names, they will receive no consideration. Let them talk things over in their clubs and other organizations; this will occupy them and do no one any harm; but it will not affect the tariff." On the same day the committee accorded a deferential hearing to a deputation of lumbermen.... This discrimination against woman, the vague feeling that she has been allowed to get on too fast, to get out of control, that she has slipped into too large activities while the good man slept, has come upon us at the very time when Scandinavia and Germany and England are getting rid of their simian chivalry. It is notorious that America, which once was the progressive nation, has been for a generation in a comatose state in the matter of social ideas. It is high time that our college women should stand solid against the blind superstition, whose mother is fear and whose father is egoism, that women can not be trusted in public affairs....

The report of Mr. Blackwell on Presidential suffrage was accepted by a rising vote and his report as chairman of the Committee on Resolutions was adopted, as usual, without change.[61]For many years he had served as chairman of these committees. His constitutional argument for the right of Legislatures to grant women a vote for presidential electors always stood unchallenged and his faith that they would do this was eventually justified. One of the founders of the American Suffrage Association in 1869, he had not during forty years missed attending a national suffrage convention, first with his wife, Lucy Stone, and later with his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell. He had never seemed in better health and spirits than at this one in Seattle but two months later, on September 7, he died at the age of 84, a great loss to the cause of woman suffrage. (Memorials in next chapter.)

The Legislative Evening was in charge of the State suffrage association, Mrs. De Voe in the chair, and it was the intention to have those members of the Legislature who were principally responsible for submitting the amendment address the convention but an extra session at that time spoiled this program. The Hon. Alonzo Wardell spoke for Charles R. Case, president of the State Federation of Labor, which was strongly in favor of the amendment, he said, and had votes enough to carry it if the members would go to the polls. Mrs. Lord represented the Grange, which she said could be depended on for an affirmative vote. Miss Parker gave a graphic description of the "illegal and dishonorable methods" by which the vote was taken away from the women while Washington was a Territory.[62]Mrs. John Moore of Tacoma read a powerful scene from The Spanish Gypsy by George Eliot. After a lively collection speech by Mrs. Upton, Dr. Shaw closed the evening with a mirth-provoking "question box."

At an afternoon session Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery read the report of the National Committee on the Petition to Congress. It had been the plan of Mrs. Catt, as presented and adopted at the convention of 1908, to have one final petition to Congress for the submission of the Federal Amendment and she had consented to take the chairmanship temporarily. Headquarters had been opened in the Martha Washington, the woman's hotel in New York City, where the headquarters of the Interurban Woman Suffrage Council, of which Mrs. Catt was chairman, were located. Here she and Miss Mary Garrett Hay spent many months from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m., assisted by Miss Minnie J. Reynolds, who did press work and correspondence with the States. Mrs. Priscilla D. Hackstaff of Brooklyn, a former Missourian, took charge of the work in that State from these headquarters and there was an energetic volunteer sub-committee of New York suffragists. The report continued:

"The Governors of the four enfranchised States served on an honorary Advisory Committee, as did the following men and women: Anna Howard Shaw, Clara Barton, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison, William Dudley Foulke, Jane Addams, Mary E. Garrett, Sarah Platt Decker, the Hon. John D. Long, Samuel Gompers, Colonel George Harvey, Rabbi Charles Fleischer (Mass.), Dr. Josiah Strong, Edward T. Devine, John Mitchell, Judge Ben Lindsey, Mrs. Clarence Mackay, Lillian M. Hollister, Mary Lowe Dickinson, Mrs. Bourke Cockran and Cynthia Westover Alden.When Mrs. Catt left for London in March, 1909, in the interests of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the work came to me. At that time upwards of 10,000 letters had been written and 100,000 petitions distributed and twenty-three State organizations were collecting, counting, pasting and classifying the lists. Since then five other States have gone to work. Letters were written to all the newspapers in the four equal suffrage States asking the insertion of a coupon petition and these coupons brought in the names of many friends who could not otherwise be reached and who were enthusiastic workers for the petition. Others to theAge of ReasonandWilshire's Magazinebrought hundreds of willing workers. Letters were sent in every direction, friends stirred up, reminded of their task and requested to send names of others who would work. Every sheet that came in was searched for names of possible friends who might circulate the petitions. Between March 1 and July 1, 1909, nearly 2,000 letters were written and 45,000 blanks distributed....

When Mrs. Catt left for London in March, 1909, in the interests of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, the work came to me. At that time upwards of 10,000 letters had been written and 100,000 petitions distributed and twenty-three State organizations were collecting, counting, pasting and classifying the lists. Since then five other States have gone to work. Letters were written to all the newspapers in the four equal suffrage States asking the insertion of a coupon petition and these coupons brought in the names of many friends who could not otherwise be reached and who were enthusiastic workers for the petition. Others to theAge of ReasonandWilshire's Magazinebrought hundreds of willing workers. Letters were sent in every direction, friends stirred up, reminded of their task and requested to send names of others who would work. Every sheet that came in was searched for names of possible friends who might circulate the petitions. Between March 1 and July 1, 1909, nearly 2,000 letters were written and 45,000 blanks distributed....

Later the work was removed to Washington and headquarters established there to finish the petition by 1910.

The report of Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg (Penn.), chairman of the Committee on Civil Rights, showed the usual painstaking year's work. Her letters to all the State presidents for information had brought answers from twenty-two and eleven of these showed advanced legislation for women and children. In some of them it was amended labor laws or new ones; in others for a Juvenile Court, for improving the position of teachers, for the advantage of children in the public schools, for property rights of wives. Maine reported nearly a dozen such new laws. Minnesota was in the lead with thirty Acts of the Legislature.

Mrs. Mary E. Craigie (N. Y.), chairman of the Committee on Church Work, introduced her excellent report by saying: "President Taft recently said in a public address: 'Christianity and the spirit of Christianity are the only basis for the hope of modern civilization and the growth of popular self-government.' ... Women are to-day and always have been the mainstay and chief support of the churches and the leaders in all great moral reforms; yet as a disfranchised class they are powerless to aid in bringing about any reforms that depend upon legislative or governmental action and the church is thereby deprived of more than two-thirds of its power to help extend civic righteousness throughout the land. Now that there is a world-wide movement among women to demand the political power to do their part in the world's work, they have a right to ask and to receive from ministers and from all Christian people support and help in working for this greatest of all reforms." ... Mrs. Craigie told of addressing the ministerial association of Canada at Toronto, where fifteen minutes had been allotted to her but by unanimous insistence she was obliged to keep on for an hour. An interesting discussion followed, after which an endorsement of the principle of woman suffrage was unanimously voted. She spoke at a meeting of the Dominion Temperance Alliance, where there were 600 delegates, many of them clergymen, and a resolution by the chairman endorsing the woman suffrage bill then before the Provincial Legislature was carried without a dissenting vote. Reports were included of the goodwork accomplished by the members of her committee in the various States.

The usual Sunday afternoon convention meeting was held in the auditorium on the Exposition grounds, under the auspices of this church committee, with a large audience who listened to an able presentation of The Sacred Duties and Obligations of Citizenship. Dr. Shaw presided and the speakers were the Rev. C. Lyng Hansen, Mrs. Craigie, Professor Potter and Miss Janet Richards. Mrs. Kelley spoke in the First Christian Church, Mrs. Eva Emery Dye in the Second Avenue Congregational Church and the Rev. Mary G. Andrews preached for the Universalists on The Freedom of Truth. At the First Methodist Protestant Church, Miss Laura Clay talked on Christian Citizenship in the morning and Dr. Shaw preached in the evening. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman spoke at the Boylston Avenue Unitarian Church in the morning and Mrs. Gilman and Mrs. Pauline Steinem at a patriotic service in Plymouth Church in the evening. Mr. Blackwell and Mrs. Steinem spoke in the Jewish synagogue.[63]In the evening the officers of the association were "at home" to the members of the convention and friends at the Lincoln Hotel.

The election of officers took place Monday morning. At Miss Blackwell's request she was permitted to retire from the office of recording secretary, which she had filled for twenty years, and the convention gave her a rising vote of thanks for her most efficient service. Her complete and satisfactory reports of the national conventions in her paper, theWoman's Journal, had formed a standard record that nowhere else could be found. She exchanged places with Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, second auditor, and was thus retained on the board. The remainder of the officers were re-elected but Miss Gordon, the corresponding secretary, stated that with the removal of the headquarters to New York and the increased work which would follow, this officer shouldbe there all the time, which was impossible for her. Professor Potter was the unanimous choice of the convention, and, after communicating with the university and securing a leave of absense for two years, she accepted the office. Her assistant and friend, Professor Mary Gray Peck, accepted the office of headquarters secretary. Both were prominent in the College Suffrage League in that State. The convention by a rising vote expressed its appreciation of the excellent work Miss Gordon had done, "and for the still greater work that she will yet do," added Dr. Shaw.

It was voted to change the name of the Business Committee to the Official Board and to add Mrs. Catt, the only ex-president, to this board. Urgent invitations were received from Governor Robert S. Vessey of South Dakota and the Mayor and Chamber of Commerce of Sioux Falls to hold the convention of 1910 there, as an amendment was to be voted on in the autumn. Dr. Shaw commented: "Governor Vessey is a man who has convictions and is not afraid to stand by them. I am grateful that he dares to do this while he is in office." A delegate spoke of the appointment of a woman for the first time to an office in her State and immediately delegates from other States gave the same announcement until it was necessary to stop the flood. Miss Penfield, one of a number of national organizers who were kept constantly in the field, told of having worked in six States in the past six months. In Pennsylvania she visited thirty-five small towns, holding parlor meetings, which she advocated as leading to the formation of suffrage clubs. In Kentucky she addressed fifteen colleges and schools. Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.), Miss Mary N. Chase (N. H.) and Miss Laura Gregg (Kans.) gave experiences in field work.

Mrs. Villard presided Monday evening and in introducing Mr. Blackwell, whom the audience rose to greet, she said: "It is a pleasure for me to pay also a tribute to the loveliness of his wife, Lucy Stone. To my childish vision she was a type of perpetual sunshine." Mr. Blackwell gave the opinion of a man of long observation and experience on How to Get Votes for Women. Mrs. Craigie spoke on Citizenship—What Is It? Mrs. Stewart relieved Mrs. Upton of her usual task of taking a collectionand among her witty remarks was one on Bartholdi's statue of Liberty. "The real goddesses of Liberty in this country do not spend a large amount of time standing on pedestals in public places; they use their torches to startle the bats in political cellars." Referring to the ignoring of women's work in the histories she said: "When I was a child and studied about the Pilgrim Fathers I supposed they were all bachelors, as I never found a word about their wives." Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's topic was Masculine, Feminine and Human, discussed with her usual keen analysis and illuminated with her pungent epigrams.

A spirited symposium took place on Pre-Election Methods, led by Mrs. Stewart, who outlined the work done in Illinois, where it had been reduced to a system. "We find candidates much less tractable after election than before," she said, "although we always send literature and letters to the members-elect and subscribe for theWoman's Journalfor them. We are now strong enough in some districts for pre-election work to elect our friends and defeat our enemies. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch sent a circular letter to every member of the last Legislature, with questions as to his attitude on woman suffrage and from the answers she compiled a leaflet recommending the election of the men who promised to vote for our measures. She sent this to every paper in Illinois and distributed it as widely as possible among the women's clubs and women at large. She did the same with our Congressmen. Not one of the legislators who promised to vote for our bill voted against it. Our most important measure was lost in the Senate by a majority of only one vote. Eight of the Senators who voted against it are up for re-election and we shall do our best to keep them from going back. Illinois has printed for several years a Roll of Honor of the legislators who have voted right on our bills."

The discussion showed a general opinion that it was high time for action of this kind. Mrs. Kelley asked: "Why not do prenomination work?" and Dr. Shaw said: "I do not know a political method when I see it and I haven't an ounce of political sense but I do believe heartily in this sort of work." Led by Mrs. Ella Hawley Crossett, president of the New York association,"Should there be concentration on one bill or work for several"? was discussed. Miss Gordon said: "Ask for everything in sight and you will get a little." Mrs. Cornelia Telford Jewett, editor of theUnion Signal, brought a fraternal greeting from the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union and when she said that most of the criticism she received was that she gave the readers too much suffrage, Dr. Shaw remarked in her jovial way: "They would get more if I could write, as Mrs. Jewett has often asked me for articles."

Among the symposiums and round table conferences in the morning and afternoon sessions were those on "How to make existing suffrage sentiment politically effective," Miss Clay presiding; "The tariff in its relation to women," and "Taxation without representation is tyranny in 1909 as much as in 1776," Mrs. Villard presiding in place of Mrs. DeVoe, who was ill; "Parents' organizations, their value in creating public sentiment," and "The self-government plan in our public schools as an aid in preparing the coming generations for woman suffrage," Mrs. B. W. Dawley (Ohio), presiding. The report of the Committee on Education, presented by its chairman, Mrs. Steinem, said that the principal work of the half-year had been to carry out the resolutions adopted at the Buffalo convention to investigate the text books on History and Civics used in the public schools and she had secured a valuable expression of opinion through letters sent to 400 superintendents of schools and twenty-six school book publishing houses. Some of them quoted the names of Betsy Ross, Molly Pitcher, Martha Washington and Dolly Madison to show that women were not neglected in the text books. Many declared they had given the subject no thought but were open to conviction. In summing up Mrs. Steinem expressed the belief that this lack of recognition of woman's influence in history was not so much the result of intention as of the masculine point of view which has dominated civilization. "The impression conveyed by our text books," she said, "is that this world has been made by men and for men and the ideals they are putting forth are colored by masculine thought.... Our text books on Civics do not show the slightest appreciation of the significance of the 'woman's movement.' ...

On the closing night Miss Richards, the noted lecturer of Washington, D. C., made a delightfully clever and sparkling speech on Sex Antagonism, Why and What is the Cure? Professor Potter gave a second splendid address and Dr. Shaw's eloquent farewell sent the audience home in an exalted mood.

The excellent arrangements for the convention and the entertainment of the officers and delegates had been made with much care and judgment by the State association and the Seattle society, which appropriated $1,000 for the purpose.[64]The surpassing beauty of the city and the Exposition was an unceasing delight. Miss Blackwell said in her description in theWoman's Journal: "The splendid setting of the convention was a constant pleasure—the tall firs, the beautiful water and picturesque mountains. Large bunches of sweet peas and of the enormous roses never seen but on the Pacific coast were constantly being handed up to the president and speakers in the course of the convention by the pretty little pages. All the delegates agreed that the display of flowers on the grounds was more beautiful than they had seen at any previous Exposition. Some of the delegates from the Atlantic coast said it was worth coming across the continent just to see this flower garden."

The always-to-be-remembered feature of the week was Suffrage Day at the Exposition, arranged by its officials for the day following the convention. To quote again from Miss Blackwell:

In the morning on arriving at the Exposition we found above the gate a big banner with the inscription, "Woman Suffrage Day." Every person entering the grounds was presented with a special button and a green-ribbon badge representing the Equal Suffrage Association of Washington, the Evergreen State. High in the air over the grounds floated a large "Votes for Women" kite. All the toy balloons sold on the grounds that day were stamped with the words "Votes for Women" and many of the delegates bought them and went around with them hovering over their heads like Japanese lanterns—yellow, red, white or green but predominantly green. At the morning meeting in the great auditorium there was fine music by the Exposition band, with addresses of welcome from J. E. Chilberg, president; Louis W. Buckley, director of ceremonies and special events, and R. W. Raymond, assistant director, and brief speeches by Dr. Shaw, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Upton, Miss Blackwell, Mrs.Stewart, Miss Clay, Mrs. Kelley, Mrs. Gilman and Professor Potter.... After the morning exercises, the national officers were taken to the Education building and treated to an excellent lunch cooked and served by the domestic science class of the high school.In the afternoon there was a reception in the magnificent room occupying the ground floor of the Washington State building with more addresses of welcome by prominent men connected with the Exposition and more short speeches by the visitors. Later in the afternoon there was another reception at the Idaho building by the Idaho and Utah women with more refreshments served by motherly matrons and pretty girls. The day closed with a "daylight dinner" given by the Washington Equal Suffrage Association at The Firs, the headquarters of the Young Women's Christian Association. Hundreds of suffragists sat down to the table within the building and on the large veranda looking off over a delightful prospect and there were many appreciative speeches. It was long after nightfall when the happy gathering broke up and the visitors then had a chance to see the fairy-like spectacle of the Exposition by night, with every building outlined in electric lights, the pools shimmering, the fountain gleaming and a series of cascades coming down in foam, with electric lights of different colors glowing through each waterfall.

In the afternoon there was a reception in the magnificent room occupying the ground floor of the Washington State building with more addresses of welcome by prominent men connected with the Exposition and more short speeches by the visitors. Later in the afternoon there was another reception at the Idaho building by the Idaho and Utah women with more refreshments served by motherly matrons and pretty girls. The day closed with a "daylight dinner" given by the Washington Equal Suffrage Association at The Firs, the headquarters of the Young Women's Christian Association. Hundreds of suffragists sat down to the table within the building and on the large veranda looking off over a delightful prospect and there were many appreciative speeches. It was long after nightfall when the happy gathering broke up and the visitors then had a chance to see the fairy-like spectacle of the Exposition by night, with every building outlined in electric lights, the pools shimmering, the fountain gleaming and a series of cascades coming down in foam, with electric lights of different colors glowing through each waterfall.

FOOTNOTES:[60]Part of Call: In entering upon the fifth decade of its work for the enfranchisement of women in the United States, the National American Woman Suffrage Association invites all those to share in its councils who believe that the help of women is needed by the Government. It is a grave mistake of statesmanship to continue to ignore the wisdom of the thousands of our women citizens, who, fitted by education and home interests, are anxious to help solve the many and vital problems upon which our country's future safety and prosperity depend....During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes; and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in 1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for rejoicing.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.Ella S. Stewart,The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping mothers spoke."[61]The resolutions declared the movement for woman suffrage to be but a part of the great struggle for human liberty; called for the enactment of initiative and referendum laws; equal pay for women and men in public and private employment; uniform State laws against child labor and for compulsory education; more industrial training for boys and girls in the public schools; more strenuous effort against the white slave traffic. They demanded that the United States should take the lead in an international movement for the limitation of armaments. A cordial vote of thanks was given for the hospitality and courtesies of the city and the people of Seattle.[62]SeeHistory of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 1096.[63]The ministers of Seattle who opened the various sessions with prayer were: Doctors A. Norman Ward, Protestant Methodist; Thomas E. Elliott, Queen Anne Methodist; George Robert Cairns, Temple Baptist; Edward Lincoln Smith, Pilgrim Congregational; Sydney Strong, Queen Anne Congregational; the Reverends J. D. O. Powers, Unitarian; W. H. W. Rees, First Methodist Episcopal; W. A. Major, Bethany Presbyterian; Joseph L. Garvin, First Christian; C. Lyng Hanson, Scandinavian Methodist; F. O. Iverson, Norwegian Lutheran; P. Nelson, Norwegian Congregational Missionary.[64]Committee: Mrs. DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Mrs. Bessie J. Savage, Miss Adella M. Parker, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Ellen S. Lockenby and a small army of assistants.

[60]Part of Call: In entering upon the fifth decade of its work for the enfranchisement of women in the United States, the National American Woman Suffrage Association invites all those to share in its councils who believe that the help of women is needed by the Government. It is a grave mistake of statesmanship to continue to ignore the wisdom of the thousands of our women citizens, who, fitted by education and home interests, are anxious to help solve the many and vital problems upon which our country's future safety and prosperity depend....During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes; and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in 1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for rejoicing.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.Ella S. Stewart,The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping mothers spoke."

During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes; and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in 1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for rejoicing.

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.Ella S. Stewart,

The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping mothers spoke."

[61]The resolutions declared the movement for woman suffrage to be but a part of the great struggle for human liberty; called for the enactment of initiative and referendum laws; equal pay for women and men in public and private employment; uniform State laws against child labor and for compulsory education; more industrial training for boys and girls in the public schools; more strenuous effort against the white slave traffic. They demanded that the United States should take the lead in an international movement for the limitation of armaments. A cordial vote of thanks was given for the hospitality and courtesies of the city and the people of Seattle.

[62]SeeHistory of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 1096.

[63]The ministers of Seattle who opened the various sessions with prayer were: Doctors A. Norman Ward, Protestant Methodist; Thomas E. Elliott, Queen Anne Methodist; George Robert Cairns, Temple Baptist; Edward Lincoln Smith, Pilgrim Congregational; Sydney Strong, Queen Anne Congregational; the Reverends J. D. O. Powers, Unitarian; W. H. W. Rees, First Methodist Episcopal; W. A. Major, Bethany Presbyterian; Joseph L. Garvin, First Christian; C. Lyng Hanson, Scandinavian Methodist; F. O. Iverson, Norwegian Lutheran; P. Nelson, Norwegian Congregational Missionary.

[64]Committee: Mrs. DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Mrs. Bessie J. Savage, Miss Adella M. Parker, Dr. Sarah A. Kendall, Mrs. Ellen S. Lockenby and a small army of assistants.

As a national convention had not been held in Washington since 1904 the suffragists were pleased to return to that city with the Forty-second in the long list, which was held April 14-19, 1910.[65]Three special cars were filled by delegates from New York City alone. It had become very difficult to get a suitable place for conventions in the national capital and the experiment was made of holding this one in the large ball room of the Arlington Hotel, which proved entirely inadequate for the audiences. The convention was called to order on the first afternoon by the national president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, and welcomed by the president of the District of Columbia suffrage association, Miss Harriette J. Hifton, and the president of the District branch of the College Equal Suffrage League, Miss MabelFoster. The response for the National Association was made by Miss Laura Clay of Kentucky, one of its officers.

The report of the Committee on Church Work was read by its chairman, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, who gave a record of the accomplishments of her committees in the various States and said: "The moral awakening of the churches to a need for more united efforts along lines of social and moral reform carries with it a great responsibility for women, who, representing two-thirds of the numerical power of the churches, are in their present disfranchised condition negative factors in those broader fields of activity which now constitute church work. Women are beginning to realize that they are wasting their efforts and energies in trying to effect moral and social reforms dependent upon legislative action or law enforcement and they are asking: 'Shall we go on with the farce of attacking the constantly growing evils of intemperance, immorality and crime which menace our homes, our children and society at large, knowing that our efforts are useless and futile, or shall we take a stand which will show that we are in earnest and demand the weapon of the ballot which is necessary before we can do our part as Christian citizens in advancing the kingdom of God on earth?'"

The excellent report of the new headquarters secretary, Professor Mary Gray Peck, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and in addition to the large collection of statistics contained many useful suggestions. Like all of the reports from the headquarters it showed the great advantage of having them in a large center. Referring to the literature department she said: "Local chairmen should see that tables with suffrage literature are placed in all church and charitable bazaars as far as possible and that our papers may be subscribed for at all subscription agencies; also that our publications are on the shelves and on file in the public libraries throughout the State. One of the things Mrs. Pankhurst said when she was looking over our work-room was: 'Don't give away your publications. We found we got rid of much more when we sold and now we give away nothing.' We have always given away ours with considerable freedom and been glad to have them read at our expense but at the low figure we put on them we could draw the gratis line closer without impairingour popularity.... The average daily output of literature since the opening of headquarters in New York—and this does not include the orders which continued to be filled in Warren—has been 2,742 pieces, or a growth of more than 25 per cent. over the average of last year. Our cash sales from January 1 to April 1 have amounted to $938, or an average of $312 per month as against the average of $89 per month for 1908-9. That is, our cash sales for the past three months are three and a half times greater than they were at the same time last year."

"The propagandist part of the correspondence," said Miss Peck, "soon makes a wise woman of the headquarters secretary. The time for general argument and abstract appeal has largely gone by. The call now is for statistics, laws, definite citations, instances of industrial conditions, legal status of women and children, etc.... The State organizations could do no more valuable service in aiding our efficiency as an information agency than by each getting out a condensed and reliable bulletin of State laws relating to women and children; and also by collecting data as to the property held and taxes paid by women, with illustrative instances where disfranchisement has forced these taxpayers to submit to injustice and unfair discrimination." She told of the increasing call for woman suffrage literature from public libraries to meet the demand and urged the encouragement of debates, saying: "If the State organizations would make a persistent effort to have suffrage debated in the schools and if they advertised the national headquarters as prepared to furnish a volume of debate material for thirty cents, suffrage would receive continuous advertising at no financial expense to us, nor would the good to the movement cease with the debate. Get the young people interested and you catch the mothers. Also by keeping a card register of the young debaters, the State organization would have the names and addresses of an ever-growing list of oncoming citizens interested in the subject. Debaters are a good deal cheaper than organizers. The State University of Wisconsin is sending out through its university extension department our suffrage literature in travelling libraries to meet the demand in the public schools for debate material. I believe most State universities would be glad to do the same for us. Many universities and colleges havediscussed suffrage the past winter, notably Dartmouth, Williams and Brown in their annual intercollegiate debate, Yale in the inter-class debate, the University of Texas against Tulane University of Louisiana, and Stanford will debate with Berkeley, April 16." Miss Peck made many other valuable suggestions from the trained viewpoint of a university woman.

Representative A. W. Rucker was introduced as a proxy for the Colorado association and gave its report with a warm personal endorsement of equal suffrage as it had existed in his State for seventeen years. The convention greeted with enthusiasm the mother of U. S. Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, who said she could not make a speech but would send her son to do so that evening.

Although national suffrage conventions had been held in Washington since 1869 no official recognition ever had been asked for or given by the President of the United States. The leaders thought that now the movement was of sufficient size and importance to justify them in inviting President Taft to give simply an address of welcome. The invitation was sent with the statement that its acceptance would not be regarded as committing him to an advocacy of woman suffrage and it was accepted with this understanding, although Mrs. Elihu Root presented a request from the Anti-Suffrage Association that he would not accept it. The entire country was interested and on the opening evening, when he was to speak, the auditorium was crowded and lines of people reached to the street. President Taft came in with his escort while Dr. Shaw was in the midst of her annual address but she stopped instantly and welcomed him to the platform. The audience arose and with applause and waving of handkerchiefs remained standing until he was seated. At one point in his brief address there was apparently a slight hissing in the back part of the room. The President paused; Dr. Shaw sprang to her feet exclaiming, "Oh, my children!" and the audience, which was excited and amazed, instantly became quiet and listened respectfully to the rest of his speech, but as he left the room, after shaking hands with Dr. Shaw, a few remained seated. As this incident attracted nation-wide comment and much criticismit seems advisable to publish the proceedings in full. The address was as follows:

I am not entirely certain that I ought to have come tonight, but your committee who invited me assured me that I should be welcome even if I did not support all the views which were here advanced. I considered that this movement represented a sufficient part of the intelligence of the community to justify my coming here and welcoming you to Washington. The difficulty I expect to encounter is this—at least it is a difficulty that occurs to me as I judge my own feelings in causes in which I have an intense interest—to wit: that I am always a good deal more impatient with those who only go half-way with me than with those who actually oppose me. Now when I was sixteen years old and was graduated from the Woodward High School in Cincinnati, I took for my subject "Woman Suffrage" and I was as strong an advocate of it as any member of this convention. I had read Mills's "Subjection of Women"; my father was a woman suffragist and so at that time I was orthodox but in the actual political experience which I have had I have modified my views somewhat.In the first place popular representative government we approve and support because on the whole every class, that is, every set of individuals who are similarly situated in the community, who are intelligent enough to know what their own interests are, are better qualified to determine how those interests shall be cared for and preserved than any other class, however altruistic that class may be; but I call your attention to two qualifications in that statement. One is that the class should be intelligent enough to know its own interests. The theory that Hottentots or any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted for self-government at once or to take part in government is a theory that I wholly dissent from—but this qualification is not applicable here. The other qualification to which I call your attention is that the class should as a whole care enough to look after its interests, to take part as a whole in the exercise of political power if it is conferred. Now if it does not care enough for this, then it seems to me that the danger is, if the power is conferred, that it may be exercised by that part of the class least desirable as political constituents and be neglected by many of those who are intelligent and patriotic and would be most desirable as members of the electorate.

In the first place popular representative government we approve and support because on the whole every class, that is, every set of individuals who are similarly situated in the community, who are intelligent enough to know what their own interests are, are better qualified to determine how those interests shall be cared for and preserved than any other class, however altruistic that class may be; but I call your attention to two qualifications in that statement. One is that the class should be intelligent enough to know its own interests. The theory that Hottentots or any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted for self-government at once or to take part in government is a theory that I wholly dissent from—but this qualification is not applicable here. The other qualification to which I call your attention is that the class should as a whole care enough to look after its interests, to take part as a whole in the exercise of political power if it is conferred. Now if it does not care enough for this, then it seems to me that the danger is, if the power is conferred, that it may be exercised by that part of the class least desirable as political constituents and be neglected by many of those who are intelligent and patriotic and would be most desirable as members of the electorate.

It was at this point the supposed hissing occurred and the President continued:

Now, my dear ladies, you must show yourselves equal to self-government by exercising, in listening to opposing arguments, that degree of restraint without which self-government is impossible. If I could be sure that women as a class in the community, including all the intelligent women most desirable as political constituents,would exercise the franchise, I should be in favor of it. At present there is considerable doubt upon that point. In certain of the States which have tried it woman suffrage has not been a failure. It has not made, I think, any substantial difference in politics. I think it is perhaps possible to say that its adoption has shown an improvement in the body politic, but it has been tested only in those States where population is sparse and where the problem of entrusting such power to women in the concentrated population of large cities is not presented. For this reason, if you will permit me to say so, my impression is that the task before you in securing what you think ought to be granted in respect to the political rights of women is not in convincing men but it is in convincing the majority of your own class of the wisdom of extending the suffrage to them and of their duty to exercise it.Now that is my confession of faith. I am glad to welcome you here. I am glad to welcome an intelligent body of women, earnest in the discussion of politics, earnest in the question of good government and earnest and high-minded in the cause they are pursuing, even if I disagree with them, not in principle but in the application of it to the present situation. More than this I ought not to say and I hope you will not deem me ungracious in saying as much as I have said, but I came here at the invitation of your committee with the understanding as to what I might say and that I should not subscribe to all the principles that you are here to advocate. I congratulate you on coming to Washington, this most beautiful of cities, to hold your convention. I trust that it may result in everything that you hope for and I am sure that the coming together of honest, intelligent and earnest women like these cannot but be productive of good.

Now that is my confession of faith. I am glad to welcome you here. I am glad to welcome an intelligent body of women, earnest in the discussion of politics, earnest in the question of good government and earnest and high-minded in the cause they are pursuing, even if I disagree with them, not in principle but in the application of it to the present situation. More than this I ought not to say and I hope you will not deem me ungracious in saying as much as I have said, but I came here at the invitation of your committee with the understanding as to what I might say and that I should not subscribe to all the principles that you are here to advocate. I congratulate you on coming to Washington, this most beautiful of cities, to hold your convention. I trust that it may result in everything that you hope for and I am sure that the coming together of honest, intelligent and earnest women like these cannot but be productive of good.

Some persons thought that the hissing was done by one or more delegates from the equal suffrage States because of the aspersion cast on the class of women who were likely to vote. Others believed there was no hissing but that it was merely an exclamation of "hush" because of the noise caused by the moving of loose chairs, many in the back part of the room standing up on them to get a better view. It was, however, a matter of great concern and regret on the part of the national officers, who met early the next morning and framed the following resolution:

Whereasthe President of the United States in welcoming the Forty-second Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association has taken the historic position of being the first incumbent of his office to recognize officially our determination to secure a complete democracy, thereby testifying his conviction as to its power and growth, andWhereashis seriousness, honesty and friendliness converted what might have been an empty form into an official courtesy, historic alike for him and for us,Thereforebe it resolved that we convey to President William H. Taft the thanks and appreciation of this convention for his welcome, assuring him at the same time that the patriotism and public spirit of the women of America intend to make themselves directly felt in the government of which he is the honored head and that at no distant date.

Thereforebe it resolved that we convey to President William H. Taft the thanks and appreciation of this convention for his welcome, assuring him at the same time that the patriotism and public spirit of the women of America intend to make themselves directly felt in the government of which he is the honored head and that at no distant date.

This was adopted at the morning's session of the convention by a unanimous rising vote. At the opening of the afternoon session Dr. Shaw said: "I think one of the saddest hours that I have ever spent in connection with one of our national conventions I spent last night after the occurrence of an incident here for which none of the officers of this association bears the least responsibility and we trust none of the delegates needs to bear any of it, when there was a dissent made to an utterance of President Taft. It seemed to us a most unwise and ungracious act and we feel the keenest possible regret over it. Because of this the Official Board has prepared a letter to the President expressing our regret that the occurrence should have taken place, whether by a member of this body or by a visitor. It is impossible to control a great public audience individually and an organization is not responsible for everything which takes place in its public meetings. While I do not think our organization as a body is at all responsible for what took place last night I feel that, since the President was our guest, it is our duty to express our very deep regret for the incident. I ask, therefore, that, without discussion and without further speech, there shall be concurrence on the part of the convention with the Official Board in sending a letter of regret to the President."

The convention agreed to this instantly with but one dissenting and it was ascertained that she was not only not a delegate but not a member of the association. This justified the general opinion that if there had been any hissing the night before it was done by some of the large number of outsiders in the audience. The letter signed by Professor Frances Squire Potter, as corresponding secretary, read as follows:

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