Elizabeth Cady Stanton SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE Article: "Shall the World's Fair Be Open on Sunday" The National Bulletin, Mar. 1892 THE NATIONAL BULLETIN. Governments Derive Their Just Powers From the Consent of the Governed Vol. I. WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH, 1892. No. II Published monthly at the office of THE WOMAN'S TRIBUNE, Washington, D. C. Subscription price 15 cents per annum: 10 cts.: for 25 copies of each number; 30 cts. per 100: $2.50 per 1,000. THE NATIONAL BULLETIN is to supply Woman Suffrage Societies with information and argument at a low price. Each month something of interest will be presented which should have a wide distribution. _________________________________________________________ Shall the World's Fair be open on Sunday. ___________________ There is a bill now before the Legislature of New York asking that the exhibit of the Empire State be closed on Sunday. There has been quite a heated debate already on that question, and the bill is to come up again for further discussion. It is rather remarkable that just as we have succeeded, after much discussion, in getting the Museum in Central Park open to the people on Sunday, New York Legislators should propose restrictive measures for that day in other directions. It is doubtful whether their constituencies in this city will sustain the proposed legislation. In different parts of our country various organizations are already passing resolutions in their convocations and rolling up petitions to Congress asking that the World's Fair in Chicago may be closed on Sundays, hence it is important that those holding opposite views should be heard. To my mind the Fair should be open for many reasons. It is the only day that the laboring masses can enjoy it, as they are practically excluded every other day by the necessities of their condition. When the vast army of men who will construct the magnificent buildings and beautify the grounds, who day by day will lift the heavy machinery and foreign exhibits in place, desire to bring their wives and children to the exposition, Sunday will be the only day they will have leisure to do so; the only day, too, when farm-hands from the country, men and women from the workshops and the factories, clerks from the busy marts of trade, servants from their domestic vocations, can claim a few hours for recreation. When we consider the multitudes that comprise these classes and their immense value in the world of work, we appreciate the importance of their rights and interests in all the arrangements of society, whether for profit or pleasure. So far from the Fair being closed on Sunday, it should be the one day especially reserved for the masses, when all those who have other opportunities should not crowd the exposition. Though the Centennial Exposition in 1876 was closed on Sunday, yet favored statesmen, millionaires, and foreign diplomats visited every department on that day and viewed the exhibits at their leisure. Whether the Fair is open or not, the city of Chicago will inevitably be crowded on Sunday. People will come from all parts of the State, to look at each other, at the exposition buildings, the parks, and to enjoy whatever attractions the surroundings afford. If the exposition is closed, they must necessarily crowd less desirable places of amusements; hence, if it is the best interests of the people those in authority aim at, they will keep the Fair open on Sunday. It is said that "those who watch the exhibits and serve the public through the week should have one day of rest." As their labors are transient, lasting only a few months, and as their surroundings are varied, beautiful, and entertaining, the tax on their time and patience would be light comspared with the dreary monotony of the life of ordinary laborers who spend year after year in dingy workshops and dark offices, or with multitudes of young men, sitting with bent shoulders, writing by artificial lights, — a class as much to be pitied as those who dig in mines, scarcely ever seeing the light of day. Those who can dispose of their time as they see fit can hardly appreciate what a Sunday at the World's Fair would be for large classes of their fellow men. It is difficult to see from what standpoint these women viewed the happiness of their fellow beings, who, in convention assembled, passed resolutions in favor of closing the Fair on Sunday. That noble Quakeress, Lucretia Mott, seeing that the laboring masses were practically 137 excluded from the Centennial Exposition, made her protest against the injustice by never passing within the gates herself. With fifteen added years of experience one would think all American women might have reached a similar standard of justice and common-sense. What is the duty of the State in this matter? Clearly, to do whatever conserves the welfare of the majority of the people. The minority have the right to stay away from the exposition on Sunday, but they have no right to throw obstacles in the way of the majority by influencing popular sentiment or securing legislative enactments to prevent them from enjoying that day in whatever way they may see fit, provided they do not infringe on the rights of the minority. Again, in a financial point of view, the State has no right to cripple a great popular enterprise, wholly beneficial in its results, by any interference. The managers of the exposition, before everything is completed, must expend fabulous sums of money in realizing their ideal of what an exposition should be, and to close the gates the very day the greatest numbers could be there, would be hostile to the interests of the managers as well as the happiness of the people. If to close the Fair would drive the laboring masses to the churches, there to drop their dimes into the collection-boxes, there might be some reason for ecclesiastical interference. But the majority will not go to the churches, but rather crowd the drinking and gambling saloon, the restaurants, and the dance-houses, and make the city a pandemonium by night. But after a long, well spent day, mid such fairy scenes as the exposition will present, wandering round the beautiful park or sailing on the lake, the majority would take the evening trains to their respective homes, with pleasant memories of all they had seen--enough to gladden the remaining days of the week. If we would lift the masses out of their gross pleasures, we must cultivate their tastes for more refined enjoyments. The object of Sunday observance is primarily to give the people a day of rest and recreation, a change from their ordinary employments, a little space of time, in the hard struggle of life, for amusements. Sunday by common consent is the day set aside to use the best influences society possesses, to cultivate the religious emotions, the moral sentiments, to teach the dignity of humanity and the brotherhood of the race. It needs but little reflection to see what a potent influence in all these directions the World's Fair will be. The location is in every way most desirable. A magnificent park, whose shores are washed by an inland sea, vast buildings, that in grandeur and beauty of architecture have never been equalled, filled with the most wonderful productions of all that is new in art and science; from every nation on the globe--what an impressive scene this will be! With multitudes of men and women in happy companionship, now wandering through this museum of wonders, and now down the winding walks of the boundless park, now seated in that beautiful pavilion on the shores of Lake Michigan, watching the rolling waves break at their feet, or in the grand concert-hall listening to interpretations by Theodore Thomas, Seidl, or Damrosch, of the divine melodies of the old masters--where else could such a rare combination of pleasures, mid such surroundings, be so easily provided for the people? Here, too, in shady books gifted orators might speak to the multitudes on popular reforms or religious questions, for there are no meetings more impressive than those held in the open air, and many assemblies might be held in that vast space without interfering with each other. If, then, the influence of the exposition on the minds of the people, can be alike entertaining and instructive, we may well ask, Why should it be closed on Sunday? Again, this proposition to close the Fair on Sunday, is opposed to the secular nature of our Government, which cannot be too carefully guarded. While all our people are agreed on the importance of one day of the week for rest and recreation, they differ as to which day it shall be. The Jews and the Seventh Day Baptists do not accept the popular Sunday as their holy day, and they might with the same purpose insist that the Fair shall be closed on their day as other sects on theirs. Some small bit of Suffrage is being asked of every State Legislature now in session; one for School Suffrage, one for Municipal Suffrage, another for Presidential Suffrage. How much valuable home time might be saved to us, if only men would at once say "Let our women go free," and vote everywhere and everytime on equal terms with themselves, and this freedom and equality for women is sure to bring new and truer peace and happiness in the home, a higher and nobler social and moral state outside, and a purer and better condition in the political world. "The Coming Man." [Answer to Ella Wheeler Wilcox.] Past the din of present tumult in that glorious coming age, You have read with eye pathetic from a thrice inspired page, When a glad millenial dawning ushers in the jubilee And from ages of oppression all our sisterhood are free. But one question I ask duly, why in all this glorious plan Do you give the toil to woman, and the glory to the man? Why not to that coming triumph may a woman true and brave, As Joan of Arc lead onward all her conquering hosts to save Those her sisters who have languished, bowed by old-time laws and creeds, Spurning them to noble actions, urging them to deathless deeds. Is thy muse yet so encumbered with traditions of the past, That you deem a man must lead us, or our triumphs can not last, Are not women daily proving all their aptitude to plan For their own incoming kingdom, independent of the man! Yet sweet charity is present at the council in our heart; We are willing, yea, and anxious, that our brothers should take part In the struggle of progression; yet upon no other plan Than the one that makes us equal-equal woman, equal man. Not a god-like hero fashioned to bring order out of strife, For the seed of that delusion held in bondage all their life Our foremothers. We are building on a higher, loftier plane; When we fashion god-like heroes, we must mould them out of twain. Hand in hand we walk together, one in purpose, mind and soul. Till beyond the clouds and darkness we have reached the shining goal. There is neither man nor woman, love must be the ruling power, Brain, its servant, then shall usher in the triumphs of that hour. When we stand beside our brothers free to claim our rightful place In the council's of the nations, caring not who wins the race: Be it man or be it woman, so the worthiest wear the crown, And the cry of sex no longer serves to hold the worthiest down-- Then the soul-travail of woman shall bring to glorious birth The king our hearts call Freedom, who shall away the green old earth By the force of right that conquers superstition's hosts of wrong, In whose thraldom we have languished e'en by will of God too long. Then, my sisters, wait no coming of a hero to command, Bringing in the long sought kingdom, while you wait with listless hand. All are heroes in the struggle and united we alone In the rearing of that temple must uplift the corner stone, Many hands make labor easy, many hearts that toil as one Shall at last sing loud Hosannas when the weary work is done, When with hands and souls unfettered we in gladness claim our own, Garnering the royal harvest that so many hands have sown. We must do as men are doing, we must labor to unite; (Moved we now a solid unit we would win the bloodless fight,) But the law of custom grafted in the formula of life Sows the foul seed of dissension bringing in its meed of strife. Rise above it, rise above it,--learn this maxim old and true. The task you wish accomplished, you had better go and do. --Naomi McDonald Phelps, in Woman's Tribune. The Woman's Tribune Edited and published by Clara Bewick Colby. Washington, D.C., This is the only Woman Suffrage paper in America to which Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Contributes, and her Reminiscences are are now being published in it. One Dollar A Year. Send ten cents for Five Sample Copies. The magnificent premium of the three volumes of the History of Woman Suffrage is still offered in cloth for twenty new yearly subscriptions, and in leather for twenty five. Transactions of International Council of Women, 1888, paper .60, cloth $1.00. Transactions of National Council of Women, 1891, cloth $1.00 The argument of Mrs. Colby before The Senate Committee giving the facts with regard to Wyoming has been issued as No. 10 of the first volume of the National Bulletin. As all the influences of the Fair will be elevating and refining, there can be no valid objection to keeping it open on Sunday. Some say it would be desecration of the day, to have a fee at the gates. If the deacons can collect our dimes in the churches with impunity on Sunday, why may not the managers of the World's Fair do the same thing at the gates? - Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Kansas and New York. From Miss Anthony's remarks before the P. E. Club at Rochester, Feb, 16. The women of the rural districts of New York are petitioning the Legislature to protect them in the right to vote for County School Commissioners - they already have the right to vote for school trustees - but in the thirty cities of the State the law has been interpreted to deny to women even the poor privilege of voting for members of the School Board. Kansas vies with Wyoming in its Congressional Delegation - the two senators - Peffer and Perkins - the eleven Representatives, Broderick, Funston, Clover, Otis, Davis, Baker, Simpson, are each and all friends of our cause, though, perchance, not one of them possesses the scholarly preeminence of Ex-Senator Ingalls, who lost no opportunity to bring ridicule upon the Suffrage Movement, yet each and all of them vastly more truly represent the heart and head of the great majority of the earnest people of that State. I doubt if the nominee of any party in Kansas - Democratic, Republican, or People's Party, would venture to declare himself opposed to Woman Suffrage, for women possessing power in the municipal elections, may, or do, stretch it out to influence both the State and National elections. To illustrate; the Leavenworth Times says of a man who is proposed for Governor: "He has ability, plenty of it, and has backbone, but he lacks judgment. He has antagonized the women of Kansas, and were he to be nominated, there would be such a buzzing about his ears that he would soon wish he were in the solitudes of Wichita once more!" As the majority of the politicians are for us, so nearly every paper on the State is [friendly. Steps are being taken for a Constitutional Convention in Kansas, and already the women have opened their campaign to secure full Suffrage in the new Constitution. Our newly elected National Vice President at large, whom you all have heard, I hope, Rev. Anna Shaw, is with their State President, Mrs. Johns and others, now holding a series] of conventions in Kansas, and this educational work is to be kept up through the coming two years, as the question cannot reach a vote until November 1894, when I expect to see the women of Kansas voting on the adoption of the amendment striking "male" from the Suffrage qualification, not only, but with the men of the State, voting it out by an overwhelming majority, so, that from that election day of 1894, the women of two States will have full Suffrage, and we shall have the pleasure of adding the second to our now lone star---Wyoming. The Leavenworth Times, the most widely circulated paper in Kansas, in an editorial says: "It has been demonstrated that the women of Kansas will vote and vote intelligently, when they have the opportunity. They are not mere fools, voting as their husbands dictate, but they have voted as they pleased, and have often pleased to vote as their husbands, fathers, and brothers did not, We know of no reason why they should be denied the right of self-government, and therefore, in State and National affairs, as well as in Municipal, we favor extending the franchise to the women of Kansas." Our own State Constitutional Convention ---for which the majority of the men voted in 1887---and for the calling of which, each Legislature since has failed to enact the requisite laws for the election of its delegates, and the time and place of holding &c., and for which the present one is expected to do its duty. Our demand is that woman shall, at least, have a delegate for each of the 32 Congressional Districts of the State, in the Constitutional Convention to take part in all its deliberations, and that women shall have the right to vote on the question of whether they want the right to vote at the election that adopts or rejects the proposed amendments. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.