National American Woman Suffrage Association, proceedings and reports, 1893-1905 [*The Justice of Woman Suffrage - Page 2*] National Suffrage Bulletin Vol. V. No. 5. New York, January, 1900. 25c. Per Year. Edited And Published Monthly, By Carrie Chapman Catt, for the NATIONAL-AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 107 World Building, New York. Subscription price, 25 cents per year. Entered at the New York Post Office as second-class matter. To the Presidents of Local Suffrage Clubs: Miss Anthony has been at work for some time past on a plan for a Permanent Fund, the interest of which is to be used to further the work of woman suffrage in the United States so long as that work is necessary, and, after that, to be applied to such other work for the advancement of women as may seem best to the committee in charge. Miss Anthony is selecting a large committee to have the investing and expending of the income from this fund, and, in the meantime, has secured pledges of some thousands of dollars. She plans to have her committee complete and in legal condition to receive contributions before the Washington Convention. She has set her mark at half a million dollars, and intends to continue her efforts until it is secured. As it is the dearest desire of her heart, would it not be a most appropriate celebration of her eightieth birthday, February 15th, 1900, for all suffrage clubs to hold meetings on that day, at which the members would contribute some multiple of eighty to be given to the permanent fund? It would certainly aggregate a fine sum for this purpose if every suffrage club in the country would do its utmost in this direction. Can you not, as president, set your Club at work? We all honor our great leader, and certainly all who come into personal contact with her must love her, and will be willing to work to give her the very best birthday present that she could wish--a contribution in aid of the cause which has received the devotion of her whole life. PROGRAM OF THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8th. MORNING, 9 O'CLOCK. Executive Committee Meeting. 10 O'CLOCK. Formal Opening of Convention. Reports of Committees: Federal Suffrage, Sarah Clay Bennett, chairman. Legislation, Laura M. Johns, chairman. Presidential Suffrage, Henry B. Blackwell, chairman. Industrial Problems Affecting Women and Children, Clara Bewick Colby, chairman. Reports of Delegates to Quinquennial of International Council of Women, Susan B. Anthony, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK. Women's Work in Philanthropy, Isabel C. Barrows, Massachusetts. Address, Harriet May Mills, New York. Moral and Material Law Alike Immutable and Inexorable, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, New York. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9th. MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK. Reports of Committees: Course of Study, Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman. Headquarters, Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman Plan of Work, Evelyn H. Belden, chairman. Report of Treasurer, Harriet Taylor Upton. Short Addresses by State Presidents. AFTERNOON, 3 O'CLOCK. Work Conference: Organization. Presiding Officer, Mary G. Hay, Secretary of Committee on Organization. 2 NATIONAL SUFFRAGE BULLETIN EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK The Training of the Woman Journalist, Ida Husted Harper, Indiana New Professions for Women Centering in the Home, Anna Barrows, Massachusetts The Justice of Woman Suffrage, Mary Church Terrell, D.C. Woman's Position in the Ministry, Rev. Ida C. Hultin, Illinois SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10th MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK Short Addresses by State Presidents AFTERNOON, 3 O'CLOCK Work Conference: Legislative Work Presiding Officer, Laura M. Johns, Chairman Committee on Legislation. EVENING 8 O'CLOCK. Our Great Leaders, Clara Bewick Colby, Nebraska Conditions of the Wage-Earning Women of Our Country, Gail Laughlin, New York. The Position of Women in England, Harriot Stanton Blatch, England. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12th. MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK. Report of Committee: Credentials, Harriet Taylor Upton, chairman. Press Work, Elnora M. Babcock, chairman. Short addresses by State Presidents. AFTERNOON 3 O'CLOCK. Work Conference: How to Conduct a State Convention. Presiding Officer, Carrie Chapman Catt, Chairman Committee on Organization. EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK. Municipal Suffrage, Annie L. Diggs, Kansas The Story of Woman Suffrage in the South, Virginia D. Young, South Carolina Address, Florence Howe Hall, New Jersey. Woman's Position in the Law, Diana Hirschler, Massachusetts. A Review of the Remonstrant, Helen A. Shaw, Massachusetts. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13th. MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK Report of Committees: Congressional Work, Susan B. Anthony, chairman Resolutions, Amendments to Constitution Election of Officers. AFTERNOON, 3 O'CLOCK Work Conference: Press Work. Presiding Officer, Elnora M. Babcock, Chairman Committee on Press Work. EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK. The Village Beautiful, Mabel Loomis Todd, Mass. Women on Managing Boards, Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Illinois The Duties of Freedom, Elizabeth Burrill Curtis, N.Y. Women in the Street Cleaning Department, A. Emmagene Paul, Superintendent Street Cleaning Department, First Ward, Chicago, Ill. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14th. MORNING, 10 O'CLOCK. Short Addresses by State Presidents. Report of Committee on Organization, Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman. EVENING, 8 O'CLOCK. The Woman's Vote in Colorado. Hon. John C. Bell, Member of Congress. Address, Carrie Chapman Catt, New York. Closing Address of the President, Susan B. Anthony, New York. Some changes will be necessary in the morning programs, as given above, in order to leave one morning free for the Congressional hearing. The date of this hearing cannot yet be given, but will be stated on the program as finally published. To celebrate worthily the eightieth birthday of that champion of true womanhood, Susan B. Anthony, we ask the grateful outpourings of affection from the hearts of the thousands of women of this Nation, whose lives have been brightened, whose possibilities of development have been increase, and hose mental and spiritual horizons have been broadened by the half century of effort made by Miss Anthony and her fellow-workers. The undersigned Committee, appointed by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, has secured the Lafayette Square Opera House, Washington, D.C., for a public meeting February 15th, from 3 to 5 p.m, on which occasion greetings will be brought to Miss Anthony from women recognized as leaders in many different lines of work for humanity. NATIONAL SUFFRAGE BULLETIN 3 Preparations are in progress for a card reception to Miss Anthony in the evening. On both occasions places of honor will be reserved for the pioneers who have all so nobly served the cause of justice for woman -- that cause to which all of Miss Anthony's working years have been given. All those who recognize the greatness of the occasion and desire to honor themselves in honoring the woman whose work has given her a position second to none among the great personalities of this century, are cordially invited to be present. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman, New York. RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Secretary, 1483 N. Fifty Second Street, Philadelphia, Pa. REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Pennsylvania. HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Ohio. EMILY M. GROSS, Illinois. FRANCES P. BURROWS, Michigan. HELEN M. WARREN, Wyoming. LUCY E. ANTHONY, Pennsylvania. HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH, England. MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Indiana. MARY B. CLAY, Kentucky. Those wishing the attend the Celebration of Miss Anthony's Birthday can secure reduced rates on the railroads by attending the Convention. For information, see railroad rates. RAILROAD RATES. A reduction of fare and one-third on the certificate plan has been secured for the delegates and visitors who wish to attend the National American Woman Suffrage Convention, to be held in Washington, February 8th to 14th, inclusive. The following directions are from the circular of instructions sent out by the Railroad Association. Please read carefully-- 1. Tickets at full fare for the going journey may be secured within three days (exclusive of Sunday) prior to and during the first three days of the meeting. The advertised dates of the meeting are from February 8th to 14th, inclusive; consequently, you can obtain your ticket not earlier than February 5th, nor later than February 10th. Be sure that, when purchasing your ticket, you request a certificate. Do not make the mistake of asking for a receipt 2. Present yourself at the railroad station for ticket and certificate at least 30 minutes before departure of train. 3. Certificates are kept at all stations. If you inquire at your station, you will find out whether certificates and through tickets can be obtained to place of meeting. If not, agent will inform you at what station they can be obtained. You can purchase a local ticket thence, and there take up a certificate and through ticket. 4. On your arrival at the meeting, present your certificate to Miss Mary G. Hay. 5. The special agent of the Trunk Line Association will be in attendance to validate certificates February 12th and 13th. If you arrive at the meeting and leave for home again prior to the special agent's arrival, you cannot have the benefit of the reduction on the home journey. If you arrive later than February 13th, after the special agent has left, you cannot have your certificate validated for the reduction returning. For any further information concerning railroad rates, write to Mary G. Hay, Chairman Railroad Rates N.A.W.S.A., 107 World Building, New York. The program of the public meeting at the Lafayette Square Opera House, Washington, D.C., which, on the afternoon of February 15th, opens the celebration of Miss Anthony's fourscore years of noble living, is almost complete. Among the notable leaders who will make brief addresses bringing congratulations to Miss Anthony, are May Wright Sewall, President of the International Council of Women, under the auspices of which organization was held the magnificent meeting of women of all nationalities in London last summer; Fannie Humphreys Gaffney, President of the National Council of Women of the United States; Lillian M. N. Stevens, President of the great army of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union; Lillian M. Hollister, President of the Ladies of the Maccabees, on behalf of business women; and Mrs. Rebecca Douglas Low, President of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. The National Congress of Mothers, that latest flowering of the organizing ability of women, also plans to send a worthy representative. In lines of work not represented by organization, notable individuals have been invited to be present, among whom are Rev. Ida C. Hultin, the eloquent divine; the brilliant young lawyer, Diana Hirschler, of Boston; and Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Dean of the National Medical College of Chicago. Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley Ward, of Chicago, whose verses have given pleasure to so many, is a devoted friend and admirer of Miss Anthony, and will send some lines on her fourscore years of labor for justice. NATIONAL SUFFRAGE BULLETIN. 4 The address of the occasion, which will sum up the work so nobly done by the pioneers and that which yet remains for their spiritual descendants to accomplish, will be made by Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, as representative of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Miss Anthony's part in the proceedings will naturally be of paramount importance and interest, but cannot be scheduled. The afternoon meeting will be followed by a card reception in the evening. On both occasions a feature of special interest will be the presence of many of the "noble army of martyrs" who have for so many years championed the cause of equality for men and women as to entitle them to the title of "Pioneers." It will be a notable assemblage in honor of a noble woman. On February 17th and 18th, there will be held a National Conference at Baltimore, with the National Officers in attendance. The meeting is in charge of Mary Bentley Thomas, President of Maryland W. S. A., and Emma Maddox Funck, of Baltimore, who are delighted with the opportunity thus presented to arouse equal suffrage sentiment in their chief city. The Southern speakers in attendance at Washington have been invited to the Conference and it is hoped they will be able to show the conservatives of that city that Southern women too are "among the prophets." SEND FOR ART CATALOGUE THE SMITH PREMIER TYPEWRITER CO. SYRACUSE N.Y., U.S.A. ALL TRAINS VIA WASHINGTON BALTIMORE & OHIO R.R. WITH STOP OVER PRIVILEGE THE "ROYAL LIMITED" MOST SUPERB DAY TRAIN IN THE WORLD. DAILY BETWEEN NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, BALTIMORE, WASHINGTON. LV. NEW YORK 3.00 P.M.-AR. WASH'N 8.00 P.M. LV. WASH'N 3.00 P.M.-AR.NEW YORK 8.00 P.M. Electric Lighted Trains between Chicago, St. Paul Minneapolis 6.30 p. m. daily THE North-Western Limited service cannot be excelled. Any agent will give you information about it and tell you the Chicago & North- Western Railway offers the best of everything. Three other first class trains from Chicago also-9.00 A. M. Daylight Train, 10.00 P. M. Fast Mail and 10.15 P. M. Night Express. 461 Broadway, - NEW YORK 368 Washington Street, BOSTON 193 Clark Street, - Chicago [*To Mrs. A. S. Church*] [* Marked*] [*Thursday Night February 17*] First Edition, THIRTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and the CELEBRATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION will be held in the COLUMBIA THEATRE, 12TH AND F Streets, WASHINGTON, D. C. February 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1898. ThursdayEvening, Feb.17 Religious Service, Sunday Afternoon, February 13, At 3 O'clock Sermon by Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. Day Sessions Free. Silver offering at the door for Evening Sessions. Hotel Headquarters at the "Regent," 15th St. and Penna. Ave. First Executive Committee Meeting in a Committee Room of the Theatre, 9 A. M., Monday, February 14. Second Executive Committee Meeting in a Committee Room of the Theatre, 4 P. M., Monday, February 14. Final Executive Committee Meeting to be announced from the Platform. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13. Afternoon, 3 o'clock. RELIGIOUS SERVICE. Sermon by Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14. Morning, 9 o'clock. Executive Committee Meeting in a Committee Room of the Theatre. 10 o'clock. Convention called to order by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Roll-Call of Officers, Vice Presidents and State Members of the Executive Committee, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. Appointment of Timekeeper. Announcements of Committees on Finance, Courtesies, Credentials, etc. Report of the Vice President-at-Large, Rev. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. Report of the Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY. Afternoon, 2 o'clock. SHORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: Arkansas, KATE CUNNINGHAM, Proxy, California, MARY A. SWIFT. Connecticut, ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER, Delaware, MARGARET W. HOUSTON, Proxy. Georgia, DR. L. D. MORSE, Proxy. Illinois, ELMINA SPRINGER, Proxy. Iowa, JULIA CLARK HALLAM, Proxy. Kansas, LAURA M. JOHNS, Proxy. District of Columbia, ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON. J. MINNIE HOLM. 4 o'clock. Special Executive Meeting in Committee Room of Theatre. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14. Evening, 8 o'clock. Opening Address by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Our Defeats and Our Triumphs, by the Honorary President, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, New York. A Voice from South Carolina, VIRGINIA D. YOUNG. The Changing Phases of Opposition, REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, New Jersey. Woman in Philanthropy, MARY SEYMOUR HOWELLS, New York. Violin Solo, JOSEPH H. DOUGLASS. a. "Fantasie Caprice," Vieuxtemps. b. "Gypsy Melodies," Sarasate. Woman in Church Philanthropies, FRANCES STEWART MOSHER, Michigan. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15. Morning, 10 o'clock. Congressional Hearing. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. Work Conference. Evening, 8 o'clock. Women in Education, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Indiana. The New Education, GRACE ESPY PATTON, Colorado, State Supt. of Public Instruction. A Glimpse of the Past and the Present, CAROLINE HALLOWELL MILLER, Maryland. Social Changes in the South, BELLE KEARNEY, Mississippi. ROLL-CALL OF THE YEARS. Commencing with 1848 each year will be called, and responses by name and sentiment will be made by Pioneers, and by name only by the younger workers, at the call of the year in which each became identified with the woman suffrage cause. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16. Morning, 10 o'clock. Report of Committee on Press Work, JESSIE J. CASSIDY, Chairman. Report of Headquarters Work, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. Report of Treasurer, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON. Report of Committee on Organization, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. MEMORIAL HOUR. Resolutions offered by CLARA BEWICK COLBY. Report of Committee on Plan of Work, MARIANA W. CHAPMAN, Chairman. Evening, 8 o'clock. Marriage in the Light of Woman's Freedom, CLARA NEYMANN, New York. Fifty Years in Medicine, DR. CLARA MARSHALL, Penna., Dean of the Woman's Medical College. The Ministry of Religion as a Calling for Women, REV. FLORENCE BUCK, Ohio. Vocal Solo, SOPHA CHURCH HALL. a. "When Love is Done," Lynes. b. "The Gift," Behrend. Women in the Legal Profession, ELLA KNOWLES HASKELL, Montana THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17. Morning, 10 o'clock. Report on Committee on Federal Suffrage, SARAH CLAY BENNETT, Chairman. Report on Committee on Legislation, LILLIE DEVEREUX BLAKE, Chairman. Report of Committee on Resolutions. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. Work Conference. Evening, 8 o'clock. Women in the Departmental Service of the United STates, AUGUST W. MACHEN, D. C. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17. Evening, 8 o'clock.-Continued. The Progress of Cookery, EMMA P. EWING, New York. Vocal Solo, GUELMA BAKER. The Civil Rights of Women, Rev. Frederic A. Hinkley, Penna. The Economic Status of Women, CATHARINE WAUGH McCULLOCH, Illinois. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18. Morning, 10 o'clock. Report of Committee on Presidential Suffrage, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Chairman. Report on Committee on Tennessee Exposition, LAURA CLAY, Chairman. Report on Committee on Credentials. Election of Officers. Invitations received for 31st Annual Convention. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. SHORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: Kentucky, EUGENIA B. FARMER, Proxy. Louisiana, Maine, LUCY HOBART DAY. Maryland, MARY BENTLEY THOMAS. Massachusetts, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Proxy. Massachusetts National, LAVINA A HATCH, Proxy. Woman's Demand for Freedom; it's influence upon the World, MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, Ill. The Relation of the N. A. W. S. A. to the National Council of Women, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Pres. N. C. W. Michigan, MAY STOCKING KNAGGS. Minnesota, Dr. BESSIE PARKE HAINES, Proxy. Mississippi, BELLE KEARNEY, Proxy. Missouri, ELLA HARRISON. Nebraska, CLARA BEWICK COLBY. Evening, 8 o'clock. United States Citizenship, ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER, Conn. The Progress of Colored Women, MARY CHURCH TERRELL, D. C. The Norsk Kvindestemmeretsforening, ELIZABETH LANGE AUS, Norway. The Work of Swedish Women in America, EMMY C. EVALD, Ill. Women in Municipalities, LILLIE DEVEREUX BLAKE, N. Y. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19. Morning, 10 o'clock Report of Congressional Committee, ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON, Chairman. Report of Committee on Course of Study, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman. Report of Committee on Revision of Constitution, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Chairman. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. SHORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, MARIANA W. CHAPMAN. North Carolina, HELEN MORRIS LEWIS. North Dakota, FLORA NAYLOR, Proxy. Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, LUCRETIA L. BLANKENBURG. South Carolina, VIRGINIA D. YOUNG. Virginia, Wisconsin, JESSIE N. LUTHER, Proxy. Evening, 8 o'clock. History of Our Work with Congress, CLARA BEWICK COLBY, Nebraska. The Next Step, ELIZABETH BOYNTON HARBERT, Illinois. Some Results of Equal Suffrage in Colorado, HON. MARTHA A. B. CONINE, Member of State Legislature. Equal Suffrage in Utah, HON. MARTHA HUGHES CANNON, Member of State Senate. Closing Address by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Officers. Honorary President, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 26 West Sixty-First Street, New York. President, Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y. Vice-President-at-Large, Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, 1830 Diamond Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary, Rachel Foster Avery, 119 North Nineteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary, Alice Stone Blackwell, 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Harriet Taylor Upton, Warren, Ohio. Auditors: Laura Clay, Kentucky, Catherine Waugh McCulloch, Illinois. Chairman Committee on Organisation, Carrie Chapman Catt, 107 World Building, New York. Committee on Local Arrangements for the National-American W. S. A. Lucy E. Anthony. Local Commitees. Arrangements, Ellen Powell Thompson. Railroad Rates, Mary G. Hay. Convention Press Work, Harriet Taylor Upton. Announcements concerning Railroad Certificates will be made from the platform. Delegates will please bring their certificates to the Con-vention. Mary G. Hay, Chairman Railroad Commitee. National Headquarters, 107 World Building, New York. THE THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE National American Woman Suffrage Association. The Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association will be held in the Church of Our Father, corner Thirteenth and L Streets, Washington, D.C., February 8th to 14th inclusive, 1900. The Nineteenth Century was called by the poet-prophet, Victor Hugo, " The Century of Woman. " Since the dawn of History exceptional women have demonstrated by their high abilities as inventors, skilled workers, poets, artists, teachers and rulers, that in the domain of intellect woman was not under the ban of nature, but under those of statute and custom. But, for the mass of women, the Nineteenth Century has been the only epoch in history which has given them opportunities as women or rights as human beings. To state the difference in position of women in all fields of activity between what it was in the beginning of this century and is now at its close, would be to present a series of brilliant transformations, surpassing the magic creations of Aladdin's Lamp. The way up the heights of woman's advancement has been long and steep, but it has not been dreary. The consciousness of giving the world a forward movement along the path of liberty is the highest reward that is vouchsafed to human effort. The greatest men of the century have walked with us ; poets have sung for us ; prophets have inspired us with visions of success ; Statesmen have made courts and forums ring with eloquence in our behalf ; stones have blossomed into roses ; scorn has become applause; timidity, opposition and indifference have changed into a grand chorus of appeal for woman's equality before the law. Let us then close the nineteenth century with a convention which shall be a jubilee for our successes and a preparation for the Twentieth Century, which is to be not man's nor woman's, but humanity's. ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, Honorary President. SUSAN B. ANTHONY, President. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, Vice-President-at-Large. RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Corresponding Secretary. ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. LAURA CLAY, CATHARINE WAUGH MCCULLOCH, - Auditors CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman Organization Committee. GENERAL INFORMATION The hotel headquarters will be at the Riggs House, corner Fifteenth and G streets, about ten minutes' walk from the Church of Our Father. Street cars run both ways between the two places. Rates for room and board--$2.50 per day for each person, two in one room; $3.00 per day for one person in a room. A list giving the rates of other hotels and some good boarding houses with convenient street cars connections to the Church, as been prepared, for which apply to Lucy E. Anthony, 1830 Diamond Street, Philadelphia, Pa. As it is desirable that the hotels know as soon as possible just how many they are to expect, it is well for those planning to attend to write direct to the hotel of their choice, securing room. BE SURE TO STATE THAT YOU WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE AT THE CONVENTION AND EXPECT OUR RATES. RAILROAD RATES.--The usual rate of a fare and one-third for the round trip has been secured. For any special instructions, address the Chairman of Railroad Rates, Miss Mary G. Hay, National Headquarters, 107 World Building, New York. The preliminary EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING will be held in a Committee Room at the Church, from 9 to 10 a.m., Thursday, February 8th. Among the speakers will be Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Clara B. Colby, Harriet Stanton Blatch, Virginia D. Young, A. Emmagene Paul, Superintendent Street Cleaning Department, First Ward, Chicago; Mary Church Terrell, Annie C. S. Fenner and Carrie Chapman Catt. There will be two public sessions daily, except on the day of the Congressional Hearing, when the morning session will be omitted. Four afternoons will be devoted to discussion of methods of work, under the charge of the Chairman of the National Organization Committee, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt. This will be of interest and value of all State workers as well as to those who look forward to becoming National Organizers. Address SUSAN B. ANTHONY, President, 17 Madison Street, Rochester, N.Y. RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Corresponding Sec'y, 1483 N. 52nd Street, Philadelphia, Pa. [*Marked Friday Evening*] FOURTH EDITION, THIRTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE National American Woman Suffrage Association AND THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION, WILL BE HELD IN THE COLUMBIA THEATRE, 12th and F Streets, WASHINGTON, D. C. February 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1898. RELIGIOUS SERVICE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON, FEBRUARY 13 AT 3 O'CLOCK SERMON BY REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. Day Sessions Free. Evening Sessions, Silver Offering. Reserved Seats, 25 cents additional, on sale at Theatre Hotel Headquarters at "The Regent," 15th St. and Penna. Ave. First Executive Committee Meeting in a Committee Room of the Theatre, 9 A. M., Monday, February 14. ------ Second Executive Committee Meeting in a Reception Room of "The Regent," 4 P. M., Monday, February 14. ------- Final Executive Committee Meeting to be announced from the Platform. ------- SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13. Afternoon, 3 o'clock. ------ RELIGIOUS SERVICE. Prayer. Scripture Lesson. Hymn. Sermon, Rev. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. Collection. Hymn. Benediction. --------- MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14. ----- Morning, 9 o'clock. Executive Committee Meeting in a Committee Room of the Theatre. 10 o'clock. Convention called to order by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Roll-Call of Officers, Vice Presidents and State Members of the Executive Committee, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. Appointment of Time-keeper. Announcements of Committees on Finance, Courtesies, Credentials, etc. Report of the Vice President-at-Large, Rev. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. Report of the Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14. ------ Afternoon, 2 o'clock. SHORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: Massachusetts, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Proxy. Missouri, ELLA HARRISON. California, MARY A. SWIFT. Illinois, ELMINA SPRINGER, Proxy. Iowa, JULIA CLARK HALLAM, Proxy. Nebraska, CLARA BEWICK COLBY. New York, MARIANA W. CHAPMAN. Pennsylvania, LUCRETIA L. BLANKENBURG. ------- 4 o'clock. Special Executive Committee Meeting in Reception Room of "The Regent." ------ Evening, 8 o'clock Opening Address by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Our Defeats and Our Triumphs (Paper), by the Honorary President, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, New York. A Voice from South Carolina, VIRGINIA D. YOUNG. The Changing Phases of Opposition, REV. ANTOINETTE BROWN BLACKWELL, New Jersey. Violin Solo, JOSEPH H. DOUGLASS. a. "Fantasie Caprice," Vieuxtemps. b. "Gypsy Melodies," Sarasate. Women in Church Philanthropies, FRANCES STEWART MOSHER, Michigan. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15. ----- Morning, 10 o'clock. Congressional Hearing. ------ Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. Work Conference. An Ideal State Association, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. Juvenile Work, J. MARY PIERSON, Superintendent Juvenile Work, New York. Press Work. Ideal Press Work, JESSIE J. CASSIDY, National press Chairman. Plate Work, ELNORA M. BABCOCK, Press Superintendent, New York. How to Utilize the Press of Large Cities, IDA H. HARPER. Improvements over Present Methods, IDA PORTER BOYER, Chairman Press Committee, Penna. Discussion. ------ Evening, 8 o'clock. Women in Education, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Indiana. The New Education, GRACE ESPY PATTON, Colorado, State Supt. of Public Instruction. Vocal Solo, SOPHIA CHURCH HALL. a. "When Love is Done," Lynes. b. "The Gift," Behrend. Social Changes in the South, BELLE KEARNEY, Mississippi. ROLL-CALL OF THE YEARS. Commencing with 1848 each year will be called, and responses by name and sentiment will be made by Pioneers, and by name only by the younger workers, at the call of the year in which each became identified with the woman suffrage cause. ------ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16. ------- Morning, 10 o'clock. Report of Committee on Press Work, JESSIE J. CASSIDY, Chairman. Report of Headquarters Work, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT. Report of Treasurer, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON. Report of Committee on Organization, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16. ------- Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. MEMORIAL HOUR. Resolutions offered by CLARA BEWICK COLBY. Report of Committee on Plan of Work, MARIANA W. CHAPMAN, Chairman. ----- Evening, 8 'clock. United States Citizenship, ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER, Conn. Fifty Years in Medicine, DR. CLARA MARSHALL, Penna., Dean of the Woman's Medical College The Ministry of Religion as a Calling for Women, REV. FLORENCE BUCK, Ohio. Women in the Legal Profession, ELLA KNOWLES HASKELL, Montana. ------ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17. ----- Morning, 9 o'clck. Called meeting of the Executive Committee on State of Theater. ------- 10 o'clock. Report of Committee on Federal Suffrage, SARAH CLAY BENNETT, Chairman. Report of Committee on Legislation, LILLIE DEVEREUX BLAKE, Chairman. Report of Committee on Resolutions. -------- Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. Work Conference. An Ideal State Association. How to Secure Thorough Organization. How to Raise Funds. General Discussion. ------ Evening, 8 o'clock. Women in the Departmental Service of the United States, AUGUST W. MACHEN, D. C. Vocal Solo, GUELMA McLEN BAKER. a. "Before the Daybreak," Nevin. b. "Summer," Chaminade. The Civil Rights of Women, REV. FREDERIC A. HINCKLEY, Penna. The Economic Status of Women, CATHERINE WAUGH McCULLOCH, Illinois. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18. ------ Morning, 10 o'clock. Report of Committee on Presidential Suffrage, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Chairman. Report of Committee on Tennessee Exposition, LAURA CLAY, Chairman. Report of Committee on Credentials. Election of Officers. Invitations received for 31st Annual Convention. ----- Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. The Relation of the N. A. W. S. A. to the National Council of Women, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Pres. N. C. W. Woman's Demand for Freedom; its Influence upon the World (Paper), MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, Ill. SHORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: West Virginia, FANNIE WHEAT. Maine, LUCY HOBART DAY. Maryland, MARY BENTLEY THOMAS. Massachusetts National, LAVINA A. HATCH, Proxy. Michigan, MAY STOCKING KNAGGS. Minnesota, Dr. BESSIE PARKE HAINES, Proxy. Mississippi, BELLE KEARNEY, Proxy. Arkansas, KATE CUNNINGHAM, Proxy. Connecticut, ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER. Delaware, MARGARET W. HOUSTON, Proxy. Louisiana, CAROLINE E. MERRICK. District of Columbia, ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON. J. MINNIE HOLM. ----- Evening, 8 o'clock. Marriage in the Light of Woman's Freedom, CLARA NEYMANN, New York. The Progress of Colored Women, MARY CHURCH TERRELL, D. C. The Norsk Kvindestemmeretsforening, ELIZABETH LANGE AUS, Norway. The Work of Swedish Women in America, EMMY C. EVALD, Ill. Women in Municipalities, LILLIE DEVEREUX BLAKE, N. Y. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19. ---- Morning, 10 o'clock. Report of Congressional Committee, ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON, Chairman. Report of Committee on Course of Study, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman. Report of Committee on Revision of Constitution, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Chairman. ------ Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. SORT ADDRESSES BY STATE PRESIDENTS: Georgia, DR. L. D. MORSE, Proxy. Kansas, JENNIE MAHER, Proxy. Kentucky, EUGENIA B. FARMER, Proxy. New Jersey, HARRIET LINCOLN COOLIDGE, Proxy. New Mexico, HON. H. B. FERGUSSON, Proxy. North Carolina, HELEN MORRIS LEWIS. North Dakota, FLORA NAYLOR, Proxy. Ohio, CAROLINE MCCULLOUGH EVERHARD. Rhode Island, Rev. ANNA GARLIN SPENCER, Proxy. South Carolina, VIRGINIA D. YOUNG. Virginia, ORRA LANGHORNE. Wisconsin, HELEN H. CHARLTON, Proxy. Colorado, ALBERTA TAYLOR, Proxy. ---- Evening, 8 o'clock. History of Our Work with Congress, CLARA BEWICK COLBY, Nebraska. Woman in Philanthropy, MARY SEYMOUR HOWELLS, New York. Some Results of Equal Suffrage in Colorado, HON. MARTHA A. B. CONINE, Member of State Legislature. Equal Suffrage in Utah, HON. MARTHA HUGHES CANNON, Member of State Senate. Closing Address by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Officers. ---- Honorary President, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, 26 West Sixty-First Street, New York. President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Rochester, N. Y. Vice-President-at-Large, REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, 1830 Diamond Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, 119 North Nineteenth Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. Treasurer, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Warren, Ohio. Auditors: LAURA CLAY, Kentucky, CATHERINE WAUGH McCULLOCH, Illinois. Chairman Committee on Organization, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, 107 World Building, New York. Committee on Local Arrangements for the National-American W. S. A. LUCY E. ANTHONY. ------ Local Committees. ----- Arrangements, ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON. Railroad Rates, MARY G. HAY. Convention Press Work, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON. ------- At tables in the Lobby, suffrage supplies from the National Headquarters will be for sale: Leaflets, badges, the flag souvenir of the Fiftieth Anniversary, miniatures of leading suffragists, photographs and books. Opportunity will be given to subscribe for woman suffrage papers. persons who have not secured boarding places in advance, can be assisted by applying at the Post Office in the Lobby of the Theatre, or by asking at Hotel Regent (corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street), for the Member of the Committee on Information. HELEN RAND TINDALL, Chairman Committee on Information. Announcements concerning Railroad Certificates will be made from the platform. Delegates will please bring their certificates to the Convention. MARY G. HAY, Chairman Railroad Committee. ------ National Headquarters, 107 World Building, New York. I have often had my attention called to the fact that the women holding municipal or government positions get pitifully low salaries compared with the men who do similar work. Efforts to have their salaries raised meet with discouraging results. Such an authority as Carroll D. Wright, National Commissioner of Labor, has said: "The lack of direct political influence constitutes a powerful reason why women's wages have been kept at a minimum." Woman's Journal, March 5, 1904. ---- Subscribe For PROGRESS Official Organ N. A. W. S. A. Edited by Harriet Taylor Upton, and published monthly at National Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. PRICE 25 CENTS PER YEAR. ---- Send 10c to National Headquarters for sample set of Political Equality Leaflets. ---- For suffrage news, read Woman's Journal, 33 Park St., Boston, Mass., edited weekly by Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell; 3 months on trial, 25 cents; one year $1.50. Political Equality Series ------- VOL. III. Subscription Price 10c per Year. No. 1. ------- Published monthly by the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. Headquarters, Warren, O. ------- The Wage Earner and The Ballot. By Mrs. Maud Nathan. (Of the Consumers' League.) My experience in investigating the condition of women wage earners warrants the assertion that some of the evils from which they suffer would not exist if women had the right to place their ballots in the ballot box. In the states where women vote, there is far better enforcement of the laws which protect working girls. The reason is readily appreciated. Where there is a clash of interests between employers and employes, the side having the votes and the money to subscribe to campaign funds will naturally receive more consideration from both law-makers and law-enforcers. The health and needs of the disfranchised working women, the eager appeals of their philanthropic sisters, all are easily outweighed by the wishes of the voters. In Colorado, women have voted for years. There, when some little children were brought from the southern cotton mills and southern methods of employment were adopted in a Colorado cotton mill, a rigorous child-labor law and a compulsory education law were enacted at once, without a fraction of the agitation required in states where women are denied the suffrage. Moreover, the whole moral and economic question of permitting children to be employed in any way which makes for their mental, moral or physical injury is simplified in Colorado, because in that state the law reaches out to the person who contributes to the delinquency of a child, along with the offending child, thus placing the responsibility where it belongs, and diminishing the number of juvenile delinquents. Judge Lindsey, who secured the enactment of this law, enforces it in such a way as to prevent the offering of temptation to thousands of messenger boys, news boys, cash boys and other child workers; and Judge Lindsey does not hesitate to assert that he is kept in office largely through the votes of women. I also wish to call your attention to the fact that Colorado places the age of consent at 18 years. In that state a girl cannot consent to her ruin at an earlier age than to her marriage. This statute was introduced and passed by the efforts of a woman who was a member of the state legislature. Another matter of vast importance to wage earners is the education of their children. It is vitally essential that the children shall be compelled to attend school rather than be forced at an early age into industry. The enormous number of illiterate children in our great industrial states is appalling. In Wyoming, where women have voted for nearly half a century, there are fewer illiterate children than in any other state--only 72 in the entire state. So long as women are prevented from voting, so long will they be kept out of positions for which they are eminently fitted. A few years ago I had an interview with the man who was then governor of New York. He was eager to appoint as chief factory inspector someone who had had experience, was honest, intelligent and capable. I suggested a woman who had been chief factory inspector of Illinois for four years, and had done expert work for the U. S. labor bureau. She had had all the necessary experience; she had only lost her office in Illinois because she had been too honest and impartial in enforcing the law; she was unusually strong, energetic, intelligent, capable and forceful; and yet, because she was a woman, the governor admitted candidly to me that he could not consider her as an available candidate. The voters would wish him to appoint a man! So he appointed a man; a man who was inefficient, but who had the backing of a portion of his voting constituency. And the man who was appointed first deputy-inspector had been elevator boy at the capitol in Albany. Running elevators was all the training he had had for this important position. On one occasion when I spoke before an assembly committee on the mercantile bill, I called on the governor, who has since died, and told him I had come to Albany in the interests of the working girls. Being a close personal friend, he did not hesitate to say frankly to me that he was not interested in working girls; they had no votes! I have know repeated cases where women who had done faithful service in public office have had their positions taken away from them merely to enable some voter to obtain the coveted place. WOMAN SUFFRAGE ENDORSED In the year 1904, 339 organizations, not woman suffrage societies, reported to the Headquarters of the National American Woman Suffrage Association that they had officially endorsed woman suffrage. The American Federation of Labor at its 1905 Convention adopted this resolution:— "Resolved that the best interests of labor require the admission of women to full citizenship as a matter of justice to them and as a necessary step towards insuring and raising the scale of wages for all." National organizations which have adopted woman suffrage resolutions are The National Grange, National Women's Single Tax League, National Letter Carrier's Association, National W. C. T. U., National Association of Spiritualists, National Convention of Universalists, Supreme Commandery Knights of Temperance, Western Federation of Miners, United Mine Workers of America, International Typographical Union and the International Council of Women, (representing twenty countries and upwards of 6,000,000 of women members.) Other National organizations which have taken action on some phase of the question or have received fraternal delegates from the Woman Suffrage Association are: National Educational Association, National Congress of Mothers, National Catholic Women's League, National Council of Jewish Women, American Library Association and the National Council of Women. 2 Political Equality Series Vol. 2 No. 1. Subscription Price 10¢ Per Year Published monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. MISS WOOLLEY ON WOMAN'S BALLOT By Miss Mary E. Wooley, President of Mt. Holyoke College. It is difficult today to realize the storm of ridicule and bitter opposition which used to descend upon the head of a woman who presumed to lift her voice in a public assembly. It is not necessary to go back fifty years to find this attitude, for many of us can remember that the one or two women who took part in the church prayer-meeting of our girlhood days, thereby deprived some of the members of their families of the privileges of the sanctuary, since they had not the moral courage to lend the sanction of their presence to so radical a proceeding. Fifty-three years ago Miss Anthony stood for half an hour in a State Teachers' Convention in Rochester, N. Y., two-thirds of the members being women, while the men present debated whether she should be heard. The question was finally decided in the affirmative by a small majority, and it was, "Resolved. That this association recognizes the right of female teachers to share in all the privileges and deliberations of this body," thus winning for women the right of speaking in an educational convention on an educational subject. In 1837, at the State Teachers' Convention in Binghamton, N. Y., it was Miss Anthony who introduced the resolution "That it is the duty of all our schools, colleges and universities to open their doors to woman, and to give her equal and identical advantages together with her brother man," a resolution which the opposition declared "sought to uproot the theory and practice of the whole world," and was "an attempt to introduce a vast social evil." Again, Miss Anthony and her co-workers taught, both by precept and example, that women have no right to confine their interests and responsibilities to their own households and personal circles. The home cannot be isolated from the great questions which affect the common welfare. She has lived to see the work of her hands established in the gaining of educational and social rights for woman which might well be called revolutionary, so momentous have been the changes. In temperance work, on school and health boards, in prison reform, in peace conferences, in factory and shop inspection, in civil service reform, in attempts to solve social and industrial problems, women are not only a factor, but in many cases the chief workers. It seems almost inexplicable that changes, surely as radical as giving to women the opportunity to vote, should be accepted today as perfectly natural, while the political right is still viewed somewhat askance. No aspect of the question appeals to me so strongly as its reasonableness. It has been shown that women can be both wise and womanly can speak in public without sacrificing their dignity; can be graduated from a co-educational insti- Political Equality Series Vol. 2 No. 3. Subscription Price, 10¢ Per Year Published monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. MORE TESTIMONY FROM COLORADO Prof. Harry E. Kelly, formerly of the Iowa State University, now practicing law in Denver, has addressed an open letter to State Senator A. H. Gale of Iowa, giving his observations on equal suffrage. Prof. Kelly says in part: Since I came to Colorado, you have frequently requested me to state my opinion of woman suffrage. I came here with very little interest in the subject, and perhaps with very little respect for it. Having resided in Colorado nearly seven years, and having observed the political and social conditions here, I have rather unconsciously arrived at an opinion. The great value in woman suffrage consists in this, that it gives dynamic force to a fresh and vital interest in the state. Women are not much concerned with mere partisan politics; and experience in the states where woman suffrage is in force clearly shows that their interest cannot be aroused in mere partisan strife. But they are interested in the questions which we may call more distinctly social. Their interests center around questions affecting education, public cleanliness, public morality, civic beauty, charities and correction, public health, public libraries—and such subjects as more intimately affect home life, and conduce to the prosperity of the family. I do not say that men are not interested in such subjects, for that would be untrue; but I do say that such an interest is fundamental in the intellectual activity of women. Men lose sight of these important considerations in the scramble of partisan warfare for offices, but women will not see them obscured by anything. One of the arguments against woman suffrage was that it would create discord in the family. Colorado has never heard of a case of family discord that was even alleged to have originated in woman suffrage. The members of a family are inclined to stand together upon political questions, much as they are upon religious questions; but this fact broadens the family interest in public affairs, because women, disregarding the mere scramble for office, direct the family interest along the line of social questions, in addition to the interest in partisan politics. So I would say that, while woman suffrage increases the number of votes, it gives us an increased breadth of public interest in social welfare. Neither has woman suffrage rendered politics attractive to women as a vocation, nor has it had any other effect on their character than to multiply their social interests, and widen their intellectual horizon. Their right to vote has not made them less dutiful as mothers and wives. If any woman in Colorado is bold and brazen, she is not so on account of woman suffrage. In fact, women of that character may be found even in Iowa. And effeminate men are scattered around over the globe, irrespective of the extent or character of the suffrage. It is contended that women do not wish to vote. Political Equality Series ------ Vol. 2. No. 2. Subscription Price 10 c Per Year -------- Published monthly by the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. ------- DR. THOMAS ON WOMAN'S BALLOT ---- By DR. M. CAREY THOMAS President of Bryn Mawr College ----- In the year 1903 there were in the United States, according to the report of the Commissioner of Education, 6,474 women studying in women's colleges and 24,863 women studying in co-educational colleges. If the annual rate of increase has continued the same during the past three years, there are in college at present 38,268 women students. Although there are in the United States nearly 1,800,000 less women than men, women already constitute considerably over one-third of the entire student body, and are steadily gaining on men. This means that in another generation or two, one half of all the people who have been to college in the United States will be women; and just as surely as the seasons of the year succeed one another, or the law of gravitation works, just so surely will this great body of educated women wish to use their trained intelligence in making the towns, cities and states of their native country better places for themselves and their children to live in; just so surely will the men with whom they have worked side by side in college classes, claim and receive their aid in political as well as in home life. The logic of events does not lie. It is un- thinkable that women who have learned to act for themselves in college and have become awakened there to civic duties should not care for the ballot to enforce their wishes. The same is true of every woman's club and every individual woman who tries to obtain laws to save little children from working cruel hours in cotton mills, or to open summer gardens for homeless little waifs on the streets of a great city. These women, too, are being irresistibly driven to desire equal suffrage for the sake of the wrongs they try to right. In the early seventies, my mother was profoundly stirred by the terrible fate of poor girls in Baltimore, arrested, perhaps on false charges, confined over night in police stations, and subjected to the brutalities of policemen and men prisoners. She begged in vain through many months for women matrons. One day, when she was being driven fruitlessly about from one politician to another, she had to stop at a polling booth to let her ignorant negro coachmen, who could neither read nor write, vote for these very men whom she had implored in vain. She often told me that from that moment of bitter humiliation, in which she, a woman who could not vote, held the reins for the ignorant man who could, she never again doubted that women must vote to protect the interests of other women. Sooner or later every sensitive woman finds herself face to face with conditions like these, that degrade her womanhood. It is in truth as degrading, though perhaps less grotesque, for an ignorant white coachman to decide by his vote how his mistress shall be taxed, or how much or how little Political Equality Series Vol. 2. No. 1. Subscription Price, 10c Per Year Published monthly by the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. THE M. A. O. F. E. S. W. By ALICE STONE BLACKWELL The Massachusetts' Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women claims to have more than 12,000 members. This statement gives a greatly exaggerated idea of its strength, if unaccompanied with an explanation as to what membership means. In most societies, those who join pay a membership fee, and renew their membership from year to year. The so-called members of the M. A. O. F. E. S. W. pay no membership fee ; they merely sign an anti-suffrage document ; and those who signed years ago are still counted as members today. As Mrs. Mary A. Livermore pointed out, they show about the same amount of interest as the women who sign a suffrage petition. Considering how easy it is to get people to sign almost anything, it is not at all remarkable that the "Antis" have been able in eleven years to collect 12,000 signatures. In New York, at the time of the last constitutional convention, the suffragists secured more than 300,000 signatures in one year. In Massachusetts, on the mock referendum taken in 1895, nearly twice as many women expressed themselves in favor of suffrage in one day as the "Antis" have induced to express themselves against it in eleven years. The M. A. O. F. E. S. W. lays great stress upon this so-called referendum, and sends out to all the other states documents giving a wholly misleading account of it. The Oregon Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women, in a recent pamphlet, based doubtless on information supplied by the Massachusetts "Antis, said of this mock referendum, "It had been clamored for most vigorously by the suffragists." The Massachusetts suffragists had for nearly fifty years been asking the Legislature for a legal and valid referendum--the submission to the voters of a constitutional amendment giving full suffrage to women. The opponents in the Legislature always refused to submit it. They also voted down a bill to give women municipal suffrage, containing a proviso that the act should take effect only if ratified by a majority vote of both men and women at the polls. Later, the Legislature asked the Supreme Court of Massachusetts whether municipal suffrage could legally by extended to women this way. The Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature could not constitutionally pass an act making the extension of municipal suffrage to women contingent upon its ratification by a referendum vote, either of men alone or of men and women together. The opponents in the Legislature refused to take such a referendum when they supposed it would be constitutional, but no sooner did the Supreme Court declare that it would have been unconstitutional than they became clamorous to have it. They passed a bill to submit the question to a mock vote, which was to have no legal validity, and was to give the women nothing if the majority went in their favor. The suffragists were so disgusted that many of them refused to take any part in it. Nevertheless, the women's vote stood--Yeas, 22,204 ; nays, 861. The "Antis" say that only four per cent. of the women of the state voted Yes. They omit to say that less than one-sixth of one per cent. voted No. They say there were 57 towns where not one woman voted for suffrage. There were 47 towns where not one woman voted for suffrage ; and there were 238 towns where not one woman voted against suffrage, despite the fact that an active "Man Suffrage Association" composed of prominent politicians covered the walls of every town in the state with large posters urging the women to vote no. The men's vote was in the negative, about two to one. The men voting no were only 33 per cent. of the men of the state, but their verdict was considered decisive. The anti-suffrage politicians who had devised the scheme of the mock referendum regarded the women's vote as of little importance. In a newspaper interview published shortly before the election, one of the officers of the "Man Suffrage Association" bluntly declared that the women who took the trouble to vote either way would probably vote in favor, ten to one (it proved to be 25 to one), but that, if the men gave a good majority against it, the Legislature could be relied upon after that to vote it down. It is preposterous to quote the Massachusetts referendum as showing that the majority of women are opposed to suffrage. Of the women who take any strong interest in the question either way, the large majority are in favor. This has been proved wherever the matter has been brought to a test. In every state where petitions for suffrage and remonstrances against it have been sent in, the petitioners have always out-numbered the remonstrants, generally 50 or 100 to one. The Massachusetts referendum merely demonstrated the same thing by an official count. Send 10 cents to National Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Warren, O., for a sample set of the Political Equality Leaflets; also 25 cents for a year's subscription to Progress, the organ of the National American Women Suffrage Association. For suffrage news, send 25 cents to the Woman's Journal, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass., edited weekly by Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell; 3 months on trial, 25 cents; one year, $1.50. she and her children shall be protected from disease and crime. Experience proves that women as well as men need the ballot to protect them in their special interests and in their power to gain a livelihood. Our new reform school board of Philadelphia contains not one woman among its twenty-five members to represent the interests of women. No woman teacher receives the same salary as men teachers for the same work, and no women, however successful, are appointed to the best paid and most influential positions in the schools. Yet more than one-half of the children in the schools of Philadelphia are girls ; more than nine-tenths of all the teachers are women ; and it is the mothers and not the fathers who care most profoundly for the education of the children. What is true of Philadelphia is true, in the main, of the public schools of every town and city in forty-one of the United States. But it is not true in our four equal suffrage states, nor in any part of the great equal suffrage Australian commonwealth. I confidently believe that equal suffrage is coming far more swiftly than most of us suspect. Educated, public-spirited women will soon refuse to be subjected to such humiliating conditions. Educated men will recoil in their turn from the sheer unreason of the position that the opinions and wishes of their wives and mothers are to be consulted upon every other question except the laws and government under which they and their husbands and children must live and die. --From an address at National Suffrage Convention. Feb. 9, 1906. Send 10 cents to National Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Warren, O., for a sample set of the Political Equality Leaflets; also 25 cents for a year's subscription to Progress, the organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. For suffrage news, send 25 cents to the Woman's Journal, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass., edited weekly by Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell; 3 months on trial, 25 cents; one year, $1.50. The women in Colorado are not office-seekers, but they vote solidly when there is anything in a campaign that appeals to their interest: and in all elections their vote is large. Among them, of course, there are some bad women, just as among men there are some bad men. But I apprehend that nobody has any scheme by which the suffrage can be so restricted as to exclude persons who are evil-minded. There is not a city in the world where the vote of evil women could be of enough consequence to be worthy of serious consideration in a controversy like this. Do not mislead yourself into thinking that you dislike woman suffrage because you would not like to see your wife going to the polls, as you say, "amid surroundings so disgusting to a refined woman." That is moonshine; for under woman suffrage, as we have seen in Colorado the voting booths are placed in most respectable quarters, largely in private houses, with surroundings that offer no opportunity for criticism. Within the limits of a letter is is impossible to do more than express an opinion. It would be instructive to enumerate and examine at length the things accomplished in this state through woman suffrage, but that is impracticable here. Suffice it to say that, measured even by its deeds, woman suffrage has proved its right to exist as the permanent policy of Colorado. -- Send 10 cents to National Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Warren, O., for a sample set of the Political Equality Leaflets; also 25 cents for a year's subscription to Progress, the organ of the National American Women Suffrage Association. For suffrage news, send 25 cents to the Woman's Journal, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass., edited weekly by Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell; 3 months on trial, 25 cents; one year, $1.50. tuition without becoming masculine,--in fact, as the dean of women in a great university expressed it, "The fear now is, not that co-education will make women masculine, but that it will make the men feminine"; that they can interest themselves in making possible "the right to childhood" for the children of less fortunate women, without neglecting their own; and be better home-makers and home-lovers because their interests are not confined within their own four walls. Some movements in history have been brought about by a stroke of the pen or a sudden uprising of the people, like a great tidal wave, sweeping everything before it; others have come slowly, as the result of the cumulative force of years of effort, and represent the gradual growth of conviction. The time will come when some of us will look back upon the arguments against the granting of the suffrage to women with as much incredulity as that with which we now read those against their education-- From an address at National Suffrage Convention, Feb. 9, 1906. Send 10 cents to National Woman Suffrage Headquarters, Warren, O., for a sample set of the Political Equality Leaflets; also 25 cents for a year's subscription to Progress, the organ of the National American Women Suffrage Association. For suffrage news, send 25 cents to the Woman's Journal, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass., edited weekly by Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell; 3 months on trial, 25 cents; one year, $1.50. Political Equality Series. Vol, III No. 12} NEW YORK, APRIL, 1899. {10C.per annum. 15c. per hundred. Published Monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, at 107 World Building, New York Progress of Equal Rights. ALICE STONE BLACKWELL. When Columbus landed at the mouth of the Orinoco, his followers suggested that he had perhaps discovered another island. But Columbus looked at the breadth of the stream, and said "This great river must drain the waters of a continent." The movement in the direction of equal rights for women is too wide-spread to be due merely to the groundless discontent of a few ill-balanced persons. It is going on all over the civilized world. Since the beginning of this century the status of women has been largely revolution-ized in regard to education, property rights, and admission to the trades and professions. The effort for suffrage is an integral part of the same movement, advocated on the same grounds and opposed by the same objections. Col. T. W. Higginson says: "We are told that women are getting all the things they need, one after another, without the ballot. But how are they getting them? Through the woman suffrage movement, for the last fifty years. One outrage after another has been removed from the path of women as an incident in the course of a suffrage convention held at the same time and place. Someone would get up in the Legislature the next day and move the repeal of one of the unjust laws to which the speakers in the convention had called attention. Judge Greene, chairman of the Rhode Island Judiciary Committee, said to me, after one of those high-minded, high-hearted, silver-voiced pleas of Lucy Stone: 'I am ashamed to think of that list of legal wrongs which she enumerated. They are all true; and I have sat on this Judiciary Committee for years and never realized them till a woman came to tell me of them.'" The venerable Samuel E. Sewall did more than any other man to secure improved laws for women in Massachusetts. For thirty years it was he who drew the bills, helped women to plead their cause before legislative committees, and obtained a long succession of legal changes. In the Woman's Journal of October 27th, 1877, Judge Sewall reviewed the progress made in legislation for women up to that time, and said: "How has this work been accomplished? By the steady growth of public opinion, promoted and aided in a very great degree, if not entirely created, by the labors of suffragists. I may add that when the suffragists first began to move, the prejudice against altering the status of wives, and giving women the public offices into which they have since been introduced, was stronger than that which now resists granting them the ballot." It is sometimes said that while the movement for education and property rights has been largely successful, the movement for suffrage has made little progress. On this point, let the facts speak for themselves. At the beginning of this century, women could not vote anywhere. In 1838, Kentucky gave school suffrage to widows. In 1861, Kansas gave it to all women. In 1869, England gave municipal suffrage to single women and widows, and Wyoming gave full suffrage to all women. Michigan and Minnesota granted school suffrage in 1875, Colorado in 1876, New Hampshire and Oregon in 1878, Massachusetts in 1879, New York and Vermont in 1880. In 1881 municipal suffrage was extended to the single women and widows of Scotland. Nebraska gave school suffrage in 1883, and Wisconsin in 1885. In 1886 school suffrage was given in Washington, and municipal suffrage to single women and widows in New Brunswick and Ontario. In 1887 municipal suffrage was extended to all women in Kansas, and school suffrage in North and South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, and New Jersey. In the same year, Montana gave tax paying women the right to vote upon all questions submitted to the tax-payers. In 1889 municipal suffrage was granted to single women and widows in the province of Quebec. In 1891, school suffrage was granted in Illinois. In 1893 school suffrage was granted in Connecticut, and full suffrage in Colorado and New Zealand. In 1894 school suffrage was granted in Ohio, a limited municipal suffrage in Iowa, and parish and district suffrage in England to women, both married and single. In 1895, full suffrage was granted in South Australia to women, both married and single. In 1896 full suffrage was granted in Utah and Idaho. In 1898 municipal and county suffrage were granted to the single women and widows of Ireland, the women of Minnesota were given the right to vote for library trustees, French women engaged in commerce were given the right to vote for judges of the tribunals of commerce, and the tax-paying women of Louisiana were give the right to vote upon all questions submitted to tax-payers. Years ago, when equal suffrage was much more unpopular than it is to-day, some one asked Bishop Gilbert Haven if it were true that he had been speaking at a woman suffrage meeting. "Yes," answered the Bishop, "I don't want to fall in at the rear of this reform; I mean to march with the procession!" There can be no doubt as to which way the procession is moving. Political Equality Series. Vol. I. No. II} WARREN, O., AUGUST, 1905 {Subs'n Price 10c. per year. Published monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association Headquarters, Warren, Ohio WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE. BY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL 1. Because it is fair and right that those who must obey the laws should have a voice in making them, and that those who must pay taxes would have a vote as to the size of the tax and the way it shall be spent. 2. Because the moral, educational and human legislation desired by women would be got more easily if women had votes. New York women have worked in vain for years to secure a legislative appropriation to found a State Industrial School for girls. Colorado women worked in vain for one till they got the ballot; then the Legislature promptly granted it. 3. Because laws unjust to women would be amended more quickly. It cost Massachusetts women 55 years of effort to secure the law making mothers equal guardians of their children with the fathers. In Colorado, after women were enfranchised, the very next Legislature granted it. After more than half a century of agitation by women for this reform, only 13 out of our 45 states now give equal guardianship to mothers. 4. Because disfranchisement helps to keep wages down. Hon. Carroll D. Wright, National Commissioner of Labor, said in an address delivered at Smith College, on Feb. 22, 1902: "The lack of direct political influence constitutes a powerful reason why women's wages have been kept at a minimum." 5. Because equal suffrage would increase the proportions of educated voters. The high schools of every state in the Union are graduating more girls than boys -- often twice or three times as many (Report of Commissioner of Education.) 6. Because it would increase the proportion of native-born voters. In the three years from June 30, 1900 to June 30, 1903, there landed in the United States 1,344,622 foreign men, and only 561,746 foreign women. (Report of Commissioner General of Immigration.) 7. Because it would increase the moral and law-abiding vote very much, while increasing the vicious and criminal vote very little. The U. S. Census of 1890* gives the statistics of men and women in the State prisons of the different States. Omitting fractions, they are as follows: In the District of Columbia, women constitute 17 per cent of the prisoners; in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 14 per cent; in New York, 13; in Louisiana, 12; in Virginia, 11; in New Jersey, 10; in Pennsylvania and Maryland, 9; in Connecticut, 8; in Alabama, New Hampshire, Ohio and South Carolina, 7; in Florida, Maine, Mississippi, New Mexico and Tennessee, 6; in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan Missouri, North Carolina and West Virginia, 5; in Arkansas and Delaware, 4; in California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Texas and Vermont, 3; in Colorado, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska and Utah, 2; in Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, and South Dakota, 1; in Washington, four-fifths of one per cent; in Oregon and Wisconsin, two-fifths of one per cent; in Wyoming and Idaho, none. 8. Because it leads to fair treatment of women in the public service. In Massachusetts the average pay of a female teacher is about one third that of a male teacher, and in almost all the States it is unequal. In Wyoming and Utah, the law provides that they shall receive equal pay for equal work (Revised Statues of Wyoming, Section 614; Revised Statues of Utah, Section 1853.) _______________________________________________________ *The figures from the census of 1900 are not yet tabulated. 9. Because legislation for the protection of children would be secured more easily. Judge Lindsey, of the Denver Juvenile Court, writes in Progress for July, 1904: "We have in Colorado the most advanced laws of any state in the Union for the care and protection of the home and the children. These laws, in my opinion, would not exist at this time if it were not for the powerful influence of woman suffrage." 10. Because it is the quietest, easiest, most dignified and least conspicuous way of influencing public affairs. It takes much less expenditure of time, labor and personal presence to go up to the ballot box, drop in a slip of paper, and come away, than to persuade a multitude of miscellaneous voters to vote right. 11. Because it would make women more broad-minded. Professor Edward H. Griggs says: "The ballot is an educator, and women will become more practical and more wise in using it." 12. Because woman's ballot would make it harder for notoriously bad candidates to be nominated or elected. In the equal suffrage states, both parties have to put up men of respectable character, or lose the women's vote. 13. Because it would increase women's influence. Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, president of the Colorado State Federation of Women's Clubs, said at the National Suffrage Convention in Washington in February, 1904; "Instead of women's influence being lessened by the ballot, it is greatly influenced. Last year there were so many members of the Legislature with bills which they wanted the club women to indorse that the Social Science department of the State Federation had to sit one day each week to confer with these legislators who were seeking our endorsement. Club women outside the suffrage states do not have this experience." 14. Because it would help those women who need help the most. Theodore Roosevelt recommended woman suffrage in his message to the New York Legislature. On being asked why, he reported to have answered that many women have a very hard time, working women especially, and if the ballot would help them, even a little, he was willing to see it tried. Mrs. Maud Nathan, president of the National Consumers' League, aside in an address at the National Suffrage Convention in Washington, in February, 1904: "My experience in investigating the condition of women wage-earners warrants the assertion that some of the evils from which they suffer would not exist if women had the ballot. . . . . . In the states where women vote, there is far better enforcement of the laws which protect working girls." 15. Because it is a maxim in war, "Always do the thing to which your adversary particularly objects." Every vicious interest in the country would rather continue to contend with woman's indirect influence than try to cope with woman's vote. 16. Because experience has proved it to be good. Women have for years been voting, literally by hundreds of thousands, in England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Idaho. In all these places put together, the opponents have not yet found a dozen respectable men who assert over their own names and addresses that the results have been bad, while scores of prominent men and women testify that it has done good. An ounce of fact is worth a ton of theory. For suffrage news, read the Woman's Journal, published weekly at 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. Sample copies free. Trial subscription, 3 months for 25c; one year $1.50. Editors, Henry B. Blackwell and Alice Stone Blackwell. The National Column in the Woman's Journal is the official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Political Equality Series. Vol, 1. No. 7. } Warren, O., April, 1905. {10c per year. 15c per hundred Published monthly by the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. When Gamblers “Pray” and Mothers Can “Demand." BY KATE E. N. FELTHAM, OF CALDWELL, IDAHO. Immediately after the adoption of equal suffrage, the Idaho Legislature passed a stringent law against gambling. During the same session a law was enacted known as the “Fee Bill”, which greatly reduced the compensation of certain public officers. These officials immediately brought suit and attacked the manner in which the “Fee Bill” had been enacted. The Supreme Court sustained them. Those who favored gambling then claimed that the anti-gambling law was passed in the same manner as the “Fee Bill,” and was therefore unconstitutional, and two of the District Courts declared the law invalid because not property enacted. Two test cases were taken to the Supreme Court, but were dismissed for technicalities, and the real question was for some time unsettled. In many places gambling was openly carried on. The women in the little city of Caldwell, foreseeing such a situation, had secured the election of a mayor sound on moral questions, and one woman as a member of the Council. An ordinance prohibiting gambling within the city limits was duly passed and published. Under the ordinance the vigilance of our good marshal was such that professional gamblers were reduced to sore straits. A wail went up from them, "Our living is gone." Strange as it may seem, merchants, hotel-keepers, restaurant-keepers were heard voicing the cry that the business interests of the city were injured by the anti-gambling ordinance. Some of the lawyers insisted that the anti-gambling law was invalid, and further that the law providing for the organization of cities and villages might also be set aside. Thus the matter was surrounded by many legal terrors. Many mothers, being anxious to have this ordinance retained and enforce, appealed to the lady who had been president of the Caldwell Equal Suffrage Club during the campaign. She secured legal advice to the effect that, even though the anti-gambling law should be declared unconstitutional, the law authorizing the organization of cities and villages, distinctly gave to the city council the right to restrain, regulate or prohibit gambling, and there was small likelihood of that law being declared unconstitutional. A few women met and discussed the matter. It was decided to induce several different ladies to talk informally with the councilmen about the wishes of the mothers. These talks were to take place as though the women had no preconcerted plan. A secret meeting was appointed, and arrangements were made to have representatives from each ward in the city. Before this second meeting, the saloon men of the city had a petition to the Mayor and council drawn up by an attorney, asking that the anti-gambling ordinance be repealed. This petition was circulated among the business men of the city, and was to be presented at the next meeting of the board. When the women met again, the president of the Equal Suffrage Club had prepared a remonstrance, and arrangements were made to secure, if possible, the signature of every woman voter in the city. During the next week four men openly gambled in defiance of the ordinance. They were promptly arrested, tried, convicted, and fined. Two of them, refusing to pay the fine, went to jail, declaring that they would have heavy damages for false imprisonment. Many efforts were made to create sympathy for them. The women busily circulated their remonstrance, and the saloon men their petition. Having been informed that the saloon men had planned to fill, with their friends, every available seat at the council meeting, the women were on hand in great numbers before the doors were opened, and occupied all the spectators' chairs before their opponents arrived. The saloon men and their friends were forced to crowd about the entrance. Just before the meeting opened, the proprietor of the largest saloon in the city entered and handed a paper to the city clerk. Considerable routine business was dispatched. At last came the looked-for-petition. It was worded in due legal form, ending with the clause "and we will ever pray." Among the names signed to it were those of many business men. At the close of its reading, our councilwoman handed to the clerk the remonstrance. In clear, incisive terms it demanded that the ordinance be kept upon the statute books of the city and enforced. Then followed the names of most of the women of the city, and a few men. Often a husband's name had appeared on the petition and his wife's name was found upon the remonstrance. As the names of quiet women, seldom seen beyond their own door yards, were read out in that assembly, the faces of the men grew grave, and it seemed as if they realized for the first time the effect of equal suffrage in the affairs of the city. One of the councilmen, an old gentleman who had been a pronounced anti-suffragist, arose, and, referring to the last clause in the petition, repeated, "'And we will ever pray;'--when before did gamblers ever pray and our mothers demand?" On motion of this gentleman, and without a dissenting voice, the vote upon the petition was "indefinitely postponed." A cheer went up from the women, and the saloon men and their friends passed silently from the door. [Two years before we had equal suffrage a large number of Caldwell women petitioned the city council on a moral issue, and their petition was thrown aside.] Political Equality Series. Vol. IV.} New York, Dec., 1899. {10c. per annum. 15c. per hundred. Published monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, at 107 World Building, New York. Is the Tax-paying Woman Represented? MARIA PURDY PECK. Two years ago, while acting as member of a committee charged with the duty of asking the Iowa Legislature to submit to the decision of the voters of the State a proposition for the extension of the ballot to women, I encountered a new idea. As new ideas often do, this one originated in the brain of a woman, and as it controverted a time-honored and much-revered theory of our political system, I was moved to investigate its soundness. "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" was the clarion cry which called from workshop and field our sturdy New England forefathers, and with musket and saber the cry was repeated on a hundred fields of battle. Under its magic influence they declared their independence of the mother country and founded a new government in which were incorporated the theories so tenaciously fought for. Whatever objection a man might urge against granting the ballot to woman, he has always been forced to admit that to tax her for the support of a government in which she has no voice is a subversion of the basic principle of our Republic. It remained for a woman, Mrs. Van Rensselaer, of New York, to detect the fallacy of the argument, and to discover that women are represented by their male relatives, or in absence of male relatives, by any other male voter who happens to be handy. Her exposition of the case, to be sure, is not very clear nor convincing, and sometimes she becomes hopelessly involved in sentiment and phrases, but when her novel plea was printed in an attractive pamphlet, and distributed by fair hands to the legislators of the great corn State, Iowa, with those who wanted only a small loophole, it did harm. As, in my opinion, a fact is always a stronger argument than a theory, I too resolved to strip the venerable tradition of its sanctity by measuring it by actual experiences. To my astonishment I found that Mrs. Van Rensselaer was not so far astray in her conclusions. The first instance which was found where a woman was clearly and unmistakably represented by manhood suffrage was furnished by a highly respected pioneer lawmaker of the State. It runs in this way: Mrs. A., a widow, lived in ------township, in Iowa, and owned a farm which was located on the boundary line of District No. 1. District No. 2 decided to build a new school-house, whereupon the sound business heads, in planning for revenue, hit upon the idea of Political Equality Series. Vol. IV. No. 9.} New York, Dec., 1899{10c per annum. 15c per hundred. Published monthly by the National Woman Suffrage Association, at 107 World Building, New York. Is the Tax-paying Woman Represented? MARIA PURDY PECK. Two years ago, while acting as member of a committee charged with the duty of asking the Iowa Legislature to submit to the decision of the voters of the State a proposition for the extension of the ballot to women, I encountered a new idea. As new ideas often do, this one originated in the brain of a woman, and as it controverted a time-honored and much-revered theory of our political system, I was moved to investigate its soundness. "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" was the clarion cry with called from workshop and field our sturdy New England forefathers, and with musket and saber the cry was repeated on a hundred fields of battle. Under its magic influence they declared their independence of the mother country and founded a new government in which were incorporated the theories so tenaciously fought for. Whatever objection a man might urge against granting the ballot to woman, he has always been forced to admit that to tax her for the support of a government in which she has no voice is a subversion of the basic principle of our Republic. It remained for a woman, Mrs. Van Rensselaer, of New York, to detect the fallacy of the argument, and to discover that women are represented by their male relatives, or in absence of male relatives, by any other male voter who happens to be handy. Her exposition of the case, to be sure, is not very clear nor convincing, and sometimes she becomes hopelessly involved in sentiment and phrases, but when her novel plea was printed in an attractive pamphlet, and distributed by fair hands to the legislators of the great corn State, Iowa, with those who wanted only a small loophole, it did harm. As, in my opinion, a fact is always a stronger argument than a theory, I too resolved to strip the venerable tradition of its sanctity by measuring it by actual experiences. To my astonishment I found that Mrs. Van Rensselaer was not so far astray in her conclusions. The first instance which was found where a woman was clearly and unmistakably represented by manhood suffrage was furnished by a highly respected pioneer lawmaker of the State. It runs in this way : Mrs. A., a widow, lived in _______ township, in Iowa, and owned a farm which was located on the boundary line of District No. 1. District No. 2 decided to build a new school-house, whereupon the sound business heads, in planning for revenue, hit upon the idea of Political Equality Series. Vol. IV. No. 9 New York, Dec., 1899 10c. per annum. 15c. per hundred Published monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, at 107 World Building, New York. Is the Tax-paying Woman Represented? Maria Purdy Peck. Two years ago, while acting as member of a committee charged with the duty of asking the Iowa Legislature to submit to the decision of the voters of the ballot to women, I encountered a new idea. As new ideas often do, this one originated in the brain of a woman, and as it controverted a time-honored and much-revered theory of our political system, I was moved to investigate its soundness. "Taxation without representation is tyranny!" was the clarion cry which called from workshop and field our sturdy New England forefathers, and with musket and saber the cry was repeated on a hundred fields of battle. Under its magic influence they declared their independence of the mother country and founded a new government in which were incorporated the theories so tenaciously fought for. Whatever objection a man might urge against granting the ballot to woman, he has always been forced to admit that to tax her for the support of a government in which she has no voice is a subversion of the basic principle of our Republic. It remained for a woman, Mrs. Van Rensselaer, of New York, to detect the fallacy of the argument and to discover that women are represented by their male relatives, or in absence of male relatives, by any other male voter who happens to be handy. Her exposition of the case, to be sure, is not very clear nor convincing, and sometimes she becomes hopelessly involved in sentiment and phrases, but when her novel plea was printed in an attractive pamphlet, and distributed by fair hands to the legislators of the great corn State, Iowa, with those who wanted only a small loophole, it did harm. As, in my opinion, a fact is always a stronger argument than a theory, I too resolved to strip the venerable tradition of its sanctity by measuring it by actual experiences. To my astonishment I found that Mrs. Van Rensselaer was not so far astray in her conclusions. The first instance which was found where a woman was clearly and unmistakably represented by manhood suffrage was furnished by a highly respected pioneer lawmaker of the State. It runs in this way: Mrs. A., a widow, lived in ----- township, in Iowa, and owned a farm which was located on the boundary line of District No. 1. District No. 2 decided to build a new school-house, whereupon the sound business heads, in planning for revenue, hit upon the idea of gerrymandering the districts so as to take the widow's farm into District No 2. Her male protectors and representatives in District No. 1 consented to the arrangement, and District No. 2 was duly expanded so as to include her possessions. The tax was levied, the school house built, and the widow, meekly submitting to the decrees of her proxies, paid her assessment without a murmur. It soon transpired, however, that District No. 1, desiring to emulate the good example of District No. 2, determined to have a new school-house, too. On the principle that one good turn deserves one in return, the old proxies of Widow A. made application for a readjustment of district boundary lines, and without much ceremony she was promptly restored to her original district. Another school-house tax was levied, her male representatives, as before, relieving her of all responsibility except the payment of the assessment. While the spirit of investigation was upon me, another pointed case illustrating the truth of the new revelation came to my knowledge: A spinster seamstress, after years of hard work, pinching and saving, found herself in possession of a sum of money that would warrant the purchase of a modest home. A suitable one was found, and in exchange for the fruits of her labor and thrift she became the possessor of a long-coveted hearthstone. Her needle, swift and steady, supplied the demands of the assessor, and kept things comfortable and tidy about the home for many a year. Eventually some prosperous neighbors petitioned for the extension of a cross street. Then the spinster seamstress discovered that her home would be sacrificed if the prayer of the petitioners was granted. The demand was not general or imperative, and when put to vote the project was lost by one vote. The matter slumbered for a long time, until almost forgotten by those who would be inconvenienced, when, as such things often do, it popped up again. It was put to vote again, and although no transfer of real estate had been made, and no voter had changed either his mind or his vote, the result showed a clear majority of 1 in favor of extension. Later investigation revealed the fact that two young men had been imported and employed in the voting district for the express purpose of carrying the measure. The home of the seamstress was condemned and practically confiscated, the compensation received being so ridiculously small that it amounted to that -- and not even the consolation of knowing that two non-property-owning sons of Erin's Green Isle had represented her, prevented the poor spinster from pining and finally dying of a broken heart. It is a fact that tax-paying women are represented at the polls, but the kind of representation they get is often so much to their hurt that it would be far better if, like the New England colonists, they declare their intention to either represent themselves or pay no taxes. gerrymandering the districts so as to take the widow's farm into District No. 2. Her male protectors and representatives in District No. 1 consented to the arrangement, and District No. 2 was duly expanded so as to include her possessions. The tax was levied, the school house built, and the widow, meekly submitting to the decrees of her proxies, paid her assessment without a murmur. It soon transpired, however, that District No. 1, desiring to emulate the good example of District No. 2, determined to have a new school-house, too. On the principle that one good turn deserves one in return, the old proxies of Widow A. made application for a readjustment of district boundary lines, and without much ceremony she was promptly restored to her original district. Another school-house tax was levied, her male representatives, as before, relieving her of all responsibility except the payment of the assessment. While the spirit of investigation was upon me, another pointed case illustrating the truth of the new revelation came to my knowledge: A spinster seamstress, after years of hard work, pinching and saving, found herself in possession of a sum of money that would warrant the purchase of a modest home. A suitable one was found, and in exchange for the fruits of her labor and thrift she became the possessor of a long-coveted hearthstone. Her needle, swift and steady, supplied the demands of the assessor, and kept things comfortable and tidy about the home for many a year. Eventually some prosperous neighbors petitioned for the extension of a cross street. Then the spinster seamstress discovered that her home would be sacrificed if the prayer of the petitioners was granted. The demand was not general or imperative, and when put to vote the project was lost by one vote. The matter slumbered for a long time, until almost forgotten by those who would be inconvenienced, when, as such things often do, it popped up again. It was put to vote again, and although no transfer of real estate had been made, and no voter had changed either his mind or his vote, the result showed a clear majority of 1 in favor of extension. Later investigation revealed the fact that two young men had been imported and employed in the voting district for the express purpose of carrying the measure. The home of the seamstress was condemned and practically confiscated, the compensation received being so ridiculously small that it amounted to that - and not even the consolation of knowing that two non-property-owning sons of Erin's Green Isle had represented her, prevented the poor spinster from pining and finally dying of a broken heart. It is a fact that tax-paying women are represented at the polls, but the kind of representation they get is often so much to their hurt that it would be far better if, like the New England colonists, they declare their intention to either represent themselves or pay no taxes. gerrymandering the districts so as to take the widow's farm into District No. 2. Her male protectors and representatives in District No. 1 consented to the arrangement, and District No. 2 was duly expanded so as to include her possessions. The tax was levied, the school house build, and the widow, meekly submitting to the decrees of her proxies, paid her assessment without a murmur. It soon transpired, however, that District No. 1, desiring to emulate the good example of District No. 2, determined to have a new school-house, too. On the principle that one good turn deserves one in return, the old proxies of Widow A. made application for a readjustment of district boundary lines, and without much ceremony she was promptly restored to her original district. Another school-house tax was levied, her male representatives, as before, relieving her of all responsibility except the payment of the assessment. While the spirit of investigation was upon me, another pointed case illustrating the truth of the new revelation came to my knowledge: A spinster seamstress, after years of hard work, pinching and saving, found herself in possession of a sum of money that would warrant the purchase of a modest home. A suitable one was found, and in exchange for the fruits of her labor and thrift she became the possessor of a long-coveted hearthstone. Her needle, swift and steady, supplied the demands of the assessor, and kept things comfortable and tidy about the home for many a year. Eventually some prosperous neighbors petitioned for the extension of a cross street. Then the spinster seamstress discovered that her home would be sacrificed if the prayer of the petitioners was granted. The demand was not general or imperative, and when put to vote the project was lost by one vote. The matter slumbered for a long time, until almost forgotten by those who would be inconvenienced, when, as such things often do, it popped up again. It was put to vote again, and although no transfer of real estate had been made, and no voter had changed either his mind or his vote, the result showed clear majority of 1 in favor of extension. Later investigation revealed the fact that two young men had been imported and employed in the voting district for the express purpose of carrying the measure. The home of the seamstress was condemned and practially confiscated, the compensation received being so ridiculously small that it amounted to that; and not even the consolation of knowing that two non-property-owning sons of Erin's Green Isle had represented her, prevented the poor spinster from pining and finally dying of a broken heart. It is a fact that tax-paying women are represented at the polls, but the kind of representation they get is often so much to their hurt that it would be far better if, like the New England colonists, they declare intention to either represent themselves or pay no taxes. Political Equality Series. Vol. V. No. 9. New York, Dec, 1900. 10c. per annum. 15c. per hundred. Published Monthly by the National American Woman Suffrage Association, at 2008 American Tract Society Building, New York. HIGHER EDUCATION FOR WOMEN. HON. WILLIAM T. HARRIS, United States Commissioner of Education (From an address at the celebration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Smith College, October 3, 1900.) Higher education means education in directive power. Directive power comes from two elements: first, a knowledge of principles and moving causes and ideals; secondly, a knowledge of human nature and an ability to create confidence in one's leadership. These two elements are quite apt to be separate, one person to have a knowledge of human nature, and an ability to create confidence in his fellows, without the scholarly knowledge of social forces and the historic development of ideals such as one gets through higher education. On the other hand, many persons get a higher education who lack a sympathetic knowledge of humanity at large, and have small capacity to interest others in their aims and purposes. But it always happens that the great social leaders, whether educated or uneducated, have to avail themselves of the services of the class who have received higher education. These act as secretaries, superintendents of labor, architects, engineers, professional advisers, and purveyors of the accumulated wisdom of the past. Those who believe in higher education have had great occasion for rejoicing, for while in 1872 the entire number of college students in the million population was 590, in 1899 the number had risen to 1,270- much more than double the former number. Subtracting the women students, the men had risen from 540 to 947; that is, had nearly doubled, while the number of women rose from about 50 in 1872 to 326 in 1899, having increased six times. In our day the development of productive industry by labor-saving machinery has proceeded so far that we all recognize the advantage which a little school education gives the workingman over his illiterate companions. The lesson of this change is obvious. It means a pressing invitation addressed to each man, woman and child to ascend to a higher use of directive power. The increase of individualism on the part of all classes of society, and on the part of the female sex as well as the male sex, involves an increased demand for recognition in all directive spheres, and not merely in the industrial sphere or in the household, but also in the political state itself. What this signifies can be indicated very briefly in this paper. The world of productive industry, whose principle is competition, furnishes a healthful stimulant to the persons of the community who are capable of receiving elementary and higher education. To that class of intellects which cannot be reached by education, competition is dangerous and hurtful, and the community must care for them as well as for the other weaklings [in?] society-not only the weaklings in [thrift?] but the weaklings in intellect and the weaklings in morals. All of these classes need to be taken in hand at the beginning with the principle of nurture, that is to say, with the method which the mother uses with her infant rather than the method used by the political state (i.e., the principle of justice). Man has a tendency to use the principle of justice, not only in dealing with his fellowmen in their full maturity, but with children and the weaklings of society, who have not the full normal endowment of responsibility. Woman has the characteristic of graciousness, kindness and tenderness. Justice and grace or graciousness are thus the two characteristics appertaining to sex, and the admission of woman into all spheres of social influence will bring the principle of nurture into those provinces where the principle of justice has been found not sufficient for the best development of certain classes of society. Not only does the child need nurture, but the adult criminal class and the adult pauper class need the principle of nurture quite as much as they need the principle of justice. Justice looks out for the return of the deed upon the doer, but nurture ignores the deed of the individual and considers his ideal possibility of perfection, and seeks by mild means of correction to form the character and to support it by creating an artificial environment and adapting it to the need of the immature individual. Just as the tenderness of the mother nurtures the child into a responsible will-power and into a love of right for right's sake, so this feminine element added to the State will make it able to provide for that very large population which fills the slums of our cities and constantly menaces life and property. The greatest obstacle to the progressive Progress Volume II. October, 1903. Number 4. Progress Published Quarterly at Warren, Ohio, By The National American Woman Suffrage Ass'n. Honorary President, Miss Susan B. Anthony, 17 Madison St., Rochester, N. Y. President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 205 W. 57th St., New York City. Corresponding Secretary, Miss Kate M. Gordon, 1800 Prytania St., New Orleans, La. Recording Sec'y, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, Warren, Ohio. Auditors{Miss Laura Clay, Lexington, Ky. Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, Des Moines, Ia. National Headquarters. Warren, Ohio. Price, 25 cents per year. Application made for Admission at Post-office at Warren, O., as second class matter. Birthday Celebration of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It has been though advisable by the committee on the program for the celebration of the birthday of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton that advantage should be taken of the fact that Mrs. Stanton's speeches are accessible in printed form. It appears to the committee that no more interesting and useful program could be suggested than that some one of Mrs. Stanton's speeches, or many magazine articles, should be read at the anniversary meeting of those clubs that wish to celebrate November 12. As it was always Mrs. Stanton's aim to rouse thought in her hearers, it is suggested that the speech chosen be presented as the basis of free and open discussion. Should it seem desirable to add to the program personal reminiscences, picturesque incidents can be found in the pages of "Eighty Years and More," an account full of humor and pathos of Mrs. Stanton's life by herself. But in regard to this point let it be borne in mind that digging in the biographical past was always distasteful to Mrs. Stanton. Nothing called for her severer censure than the precious time women's clubs give to the facts of those who have passed to the Beyond. The committee would emphasize, then, that the most clarifying tribute would be to give, in place of any idea of Mrs. Stanton's life, her idea of the life of man and woman. If it is the desire of a club to add the charm of music to the occasion, the committee suggest as appropriate selections the following pieces, which were special favorites of Mrs. Stanton: "The Watchman," by Grieg; "Ah, 'tis a Dream," by Hawley; Adagio Sonata No. 1, by Beethoven. The references given below in brackets are to the Woman Suffrage History ** three volumes of which were issued several years ago by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Gage, and Miss Anthony, and the fourth volume of which, edited by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Harper, has been published within the past year. As example of Mrs. Stanton's early addresses can be chosen: 1. Address before the New York Legislature in 1854. [Vol. 1, 595. Deals with the position of woman as woman, as wife, as widow, as mother. This speech would form a good basis for a discussion of the changes of the last fifty years. 2. Speech before the New York Legislature, 1860. [Vol. 1, 679.] One of Mrs. Stanton's finest efforts. A bill was before the Senate regulating the "rights and liabilities of husbands and wives." The chief point in the new law was that it secured to the wives of the men of the working classes complete control of their wages. If Constitutional arguments are desired, one of the following speeches can be selected: 1. Speech before the New York legislature, 1867. [Vol. II, 270.] This is an argument in favor of women being allowed to vote for the members of a New York Constitutional Convention. 2. Speech delivered at the first Woman Suffrage Convention held in Washington, D. C. [Vol. 11. 348.] It gives reasons for hostility to the XIV and XV Amendments to the Constitution, and advocates a XVI Amendment. 3. Speech in 1870 before Congressional Committee on the District of Columbia. [Vol. 11, 411.] This is a plea for Congress to enfranchise women in the District of Columbia. It is also an argument that women have the right of suffrage under the Constitution as it stands. 4. Speech before U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee 1872. [Vol. 11, 506] Argument that women are citizens and have the right to vote. 5. Speech before U. S. Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections. 1878. [Vol. 111, 80.] Argument for a XVI Amendment to the Constitution. As no one would have felt herself more honored that Mrs. Stanton if allowed to speak a word in honor of co-workers, perhaps some clubs would prefer to any one of the speeches suggested one of her eulogies on the pioneers: 1. Speech at the memorial service for Lucretia Mott. [Vol. 1, 283.] 2. Reminiscences of Paulina Wright Davis. [Vol. 283.] 3. Reminiscences of Angelina Grimke. [Vol. 1, 392.] 4. Reminiscences of Susan B. Anthony. [Vol. 1, 456.] 5. Reminiscences of a trip to England. [Vol. III, 922.] As examples of Mrs. Stanton's most vigorous and mature thought may be chosen some of her latest utterances: 1. Extracts from speeches which can easily be blended and used on a single occasion. [Vol.. IV, pp. 57, 176. 268.] 2. Last speech delivered in person at a National Convention and before a Congressional Committee. [Vol. IV, 189.] This speech is entitled the "Solitude of Self." By many this is considered the greatest speech ever written by Mrs. Stanton. With the suggestion that the centre of the program should be made one of Mrs. Stanton's own utterances, the committee feel their work ends, for the interest of the occasion must be largely determined by the individuality of each club. The committee gives its recommendation with confidence that if a club wishes to make the occasion one of wit and humor, it will find to its hand a rich mine in "Eighty Years and More;" if, on the contrary, it desires to quicken a legal discussion, it cannot do better than open with one of the Constitutional arguments. In short, we offer a rich, varied diet, and leave to others the writing out of the menu. The banquet is spread. "May good digestion wait on appetite." Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Smith Miller, Harriot Stanton Blatch, Chairman} Com. 610 E. Buffalo Street, Ithaca, N. Y. *"Eighty Years and More" can be found at many public libraries. ** The Woman Suffrage History can be found in many public libraries. It can be bought of Miss Anthony, 17 Madison St., Rochester, N. Y. *At its last Convention the National Woman Suffrage Association recommended that its auxiliaries observe the birthdays of Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, on August 13, November 12, and February 15, respectively. For the Stanton Celebration Articles on Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, written by Miss Anthony and Mrs. Ida H. Harper, were published soon after her death in the following magazines and newspapers, all of New York City: Review of Reviews for December, 13 Astor Place, price 25 cents; North American Review for December, Franklin Square, price 50 cents; Pearson's Magazine for December, 8 Astor Place, price 10 cents; The Independent for Nov. 6 and May 21, 130 Fulton street, price 10 cents; Collier's Weekly for Jan. 10, 1903, 416 W. 13th street, price 10 cents; The Sunday Sun for Nov. 2, 9. 16, 170 Nassau street, price 5 cents. These articles treat of Mrs. Stanton in many different aspects, and will be useful to clubs getting up celebrations. History of Woman Suffrage. The fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage, compiled by Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, is now ready. Miss Anthony has placed hundreds of set of the first three volumes in libraries throughout the country and is very desirous of adding the fourth volume in each case. Individuals and libraries, having the first three volumes, may procure the fourth by sending $3.00 to Susan B. Anthony, 17 Madison Street, Rochester, New York. $12 will buy the four volumes. This is a very valuable work and should be within the reach of every student of history in the country. Friends are invited to co-operate with Miss Anthony in placing it. Dr. Rainsford On Woman's Suffrage The Rev. W. S. Rainsford, D. D., rector of St. George's Church, New York City, expresses himself as follows on the vexed question of woman's ballot: We have admitted woman's right to property and education. It is then only a question of time until we admit her right to the ballot; for by it she can best protect the one and express the other. It seems to me that in this fact of woman's admission to property and education the gist of the whole matter lies. I shall try briefly to state some my reasons for hoping that soon women may receive the ballot. First, if women were allowed to vote we should have an immense addition to the intelligent voters of the country. Some have feared that the new suffragists would add largely to the ignorant vote. I cannot myself understand how anyone who knows our American people can take that view. There are at least as many women as men in the Eastern States. What is crime in the man's case is crime in the woman's; and, more than that, women are unjustly held for a crime, punished for crime, which same crime is accounted little of in the men. And yet what do criminal statistics tell us? That in the State of New York there are fourteen male criminals for every woman. Give the suffrage then to men and women alike, and you relatively increase the moral vote. Here and there of course, ignorant votes might be cast by women; but these statistics alone are sufficient to prove that women are more obedient to the laws than men. Furthermore -- I speak from my own experience, and that experience tallies exactly with the experience of all I have met who know our plainer people -- if anybody wants to start a movement, or engage in any philanthropic work, that has for its object the cleansing or purifying of a neighborhood, the bettering of homes, the enforcement of laws, sanitary, etc., where does he first win allies? Why, we have always had five women to every man. The fear that if women were granted the ballot they would add relatively to the ignorant vote is a fear based on supreme ignorance. But what shall we say about the foreign vote? Enemies of suffrage challenge us here. How about the Jew, Italian, Slav, low Irish, etc.? To this adoption of local self-government is the danger which comes from enfranchising the weaklings of society. They do not need the ballot, but they need nurture in schools and progressive training in industry and in the management of property. It is the participation of woman as an active influence in political affairs that promises to hasten the realization of a government which adopts the principle of nurture in the place of abstract justice in dealing with the weaklings. The preventive function is needed quite as much as the punishing function of the municipal government. Women's advice and aid in the administration of this function have long been desired. The present movement toward superior education of women will do much to hasten this good result. Woman in literature, not only as writer but more especially as reader, has effected a radical reform. Obscenity and harshness have been mostly eliminated from literature and art; so it will happen that woman, in sharing the government, will avail to eliminate the rigors of the law, and much of the corruption in politics that now prevails. Notwithstanding all drawbacks, we are sure that the future of woman means the gradual acquirement of her share of influence in the division of labor and in political control. The progress of science and the conquest of nature by means of invention, the increased perfection of machinery, which eliminates the necessity for the factor of human physical strength, and above all the successful prosecution by woman of superior education, make the achievement of her ideal only a matter of time. PROGRESS I reply that the proportion of female emigrants is much smaller than that of males; that these same Jews, Italians, Irish, etc., are many of them in the majority of cases, not at all anxious to vote, that they have to be drawn or driven to the polls; and it is those who marshal them there that are the real danger to our institutions. In short, the interested vote, not the ignorant vote is the threatening element in our Republic. The men who for their own selfish ends lay carefully matured plans to purchase or coerce the votes of the poor and the ignorant, these are the true conspirators against the Republic. All historians will recognize the truth of what I say: it is the interested vote that has always brought to ruin the most hopeful government. It is the vote of those who put their own ends and objects before the good of the State, and fight for their class, their personal ambitions or fortunes, and sacrifice to these the well-being of the community. These were the men that shattered the hopes of civilization in Greece long ago. These were they who succeeded at last in bringing ruin to the vast fabric of Roman civilization; in much later times it was they that betrayed Poland; and in our own mother country, before the first great reform bill, dragged England to the brink of civil war. And what saved England in 1832? It was the small but resolute band of men who believed in men, who, in spite of the loud outcries of those in power, many of them good and patriotic citizens, saw that it was the right thing to increase the suffrage, and so did the right thing, no matter what happened. And by her suffrage, England expanded her life, and from that very day went forward with larger liberty to accomplish her great destiny. Since then, many additions have been made to the suffrage in the old land, till today practically we may say her suffrage is universal. Sometimes these reform bills have scarcely roused enthusiasm among those parts of the population which by them received the ballot; but this has made very little difference; for in time the new recipients of the ballot have learned what we are slow to remember over here, that the only way people learn to vote intelligently is by voting. Can there be doubt in the minds of any today as to the reality of this danger of the interested vote to which I have referred? Do we not all know that there are great trusts in this country who can have what they want from any government, whether it be Republican or Democratic? A shameful exhibition of their power has lately been displayed to us all at Washington. To come nearer to home, do we not know that the real conspirators against good government in New York are those who pay large money to Tammany to secure franchises of great value, out of which they make fortunes, and then often cover their tracks by abusing Tammany. If it is our aim to blend and digest the various national elements which we have received, and weld them together into a great national whole, then why should we deny the vote to the most moral element within it? Or why refuse to our women, whom for generations we have carefully educated, the means to express that education? it seems to me scarcely worth argument that the average woman in this country is as intelligent as the average man. Surely we all admit that. And if she be shall we prevent her taking her place side by side with him in the intelligent expression of that education? But you hear it said, this is not woman's sphere. I answer, we can place no limitation to woman's sphere. Woman's sphere is what she can fill, not more, not less. It is not so many years ago since we were told it was unwomanly for a clever woman to write a novel. Jane Austen had difficulties in that line. At every advance in woman's education, at every step which seemed to place her in competition with men, she has been greeted with hootings and abuse. But the nature of things is too strong for us all and whether we will or whether we will not, the tides bear on us, and she is man's competitior. You all know the various fields on which she has entered into competition with him. The suffrage will not increase or lessen these. It simply recognizes that she is there, and there to stay and enables her both to defend her position and to feel truly the responsibility of it. But woman cannot bear arms, be a soldier or a policeman. True. But would any man in his senses say that in bearing children she does not more than do her part in enduring the pains and carrying the burdens of the nation? On all such questions the statement I have already made holds good; her sphere is limited, and only can be limited, by her ability. She will not do what she cannot do. You cannot make her do what she does not want to do; but what she can do and what she wants to do you cannot prevent her doing. But I venture on a further point. Whether we greet it with dismay or hopefulness, one of the results of our civilization is that legislation is entering on spheres which are peculiarly woman's. Once upon a time legislation chiefly had to do with protection of property. Now points that we did not dream of legislating are about so dealt with as a matter of course. We legislate about homes, sanitary questions, education, relations of labor to capital, licensing questions, the drink trade, etc., all moral questions, these, questions that in the most intimate way affect the home as well as the outside interests of life; and questions on which woman is not only a judge, but decidedly the best judge It is most unreasonable and unfair that in these questions where experience is vital, and all her tenderest interests are immediately affected, her influence should be confined to an indirect influence, and her vote, if recorded at all, only recorded through pressure on her husband or her sons. Then there are those who say that a danger would arise, if the suffrage be given to women, on account of the power thus given to the Roman Catholic church. I think the fear of the Roman Catholic church is growing, less and less among us, at least among those who know something of our city conditions. That church is always on the side of law and order and morality. She is freeing herself fast from the trammels of mediaevalism. She is not the menace that some make her out to be to our American institutions. And I believe all forms of education combined do not educate more than does the use of the ballot itself, by granting the ballot to Roman Catholic women we would teach them to take a great stride forward, and develop in them independence of thought and action. Finally life has a way of outgrowing law in this world; and when it does law must fit itself to life. If the pot wont hold the young growing tree, so much the worse for the pot; we will back the tree every time. We legislate on a hundred things our fathers never dreamed of legislating on. Law is everywhere clothing moral ideas for us today. All men do not see it so, but so it is. Our boys and girls grow, and we have to get them each year a bigger suit. So with our laws -they must grow with us, if we would not legally go naked. People who have lived in the United States for the last thirty years should not need to be reminded of this. Today the life of our women has grown wider, has led them up to this point where they come asking the suffrage, and neither common sense nor the interests of the nation will permit its being refused to them. Still a timid soul will press forward and cry, "We dread to see women in politics." I cannot share that dread. The time is coming when politics will be seen to be what it is - the splendid science of human direction and government. Once so seen, who shall dare longer to regard it as a field to be abandoned to the trickster, wirepuller, and men whose chief cleverness lies in intrigue; a sphere which man enters to advance his own fortune, or to increase and defend his estate? I know this view still exists, but it is essentially a barbaric one. Politics and political science must soon be seen as they are - a living and ennobling effort to carry into the life of mankind principles of highest morality, and so to raise and keep aloft men's lives, as well as to defend men's pockets. In bringing about this better view and better day, I am very sure the morality and idealism of American womankind must find its place. And so, for my part, I have done and will do what in me lies to win for the womanhood of our nation a voice in its fateful councils. ----- IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. ------ Miss Vida Goldstein of Melbourne, Australia, editor of Woman's Sphere, and delegate from Australia and New Zealand to the International Woman Suffrage Conference held last year in Washington D. C., thus summed up the concrete results of equal suffrage in an address given February 15, 1902: In New Zealand women have had the ballot since 1893 and the following reforms have been secured by means of the women's vote: 1. The divorce laws have been equalized. 2. A married man is prevented from willing all his property away from his wife and children. 3. The municipal franchise has been equalized. 4. The saloons are closed on election days 5. The legal profession has been thrown open to women. 6. The wife receives half her husband's pay when he is employed on relief works. 7. The age of protection for girls has been raised to 17. In South Australia women has had the vote since 1895, and have obtained among others the following important reforms: 1. The married Women's Protection Act, freeing a woman from a brutal husband, and compelling him to pay maintenance to his wife and children. 2. Amendment of the Married Women's Property Act, extending a married woman's power to contract. 3. The Affiliation Act, extending the remedies against fathers of illegitimate children. 4. An amendment to the Police Act, preventing men from trading on prostitution, and receiving earnings therefrom. In West Australia women have been enfranchised only since December, 1899, and yet, in the brief space of two years, they, too, have had the legal profession thrown open to women , the age of protection raised to 17, and the divorce laws equalized. --- *Women now have national suffrage throughout Australia, but it was granted only a short time ago. Before that, South and West Australia were the only Australian colonies where women voted for members of Parliament. ---- FRUITS OF EQUAL SUFFRAGE. ----- (Reprinted by Request from July Number.) The advocates of equal suffrage are often asked what practical and tangible good it has done where it prevails, and the are sometimes challenged to name a single "law aimed at human betterment" which has been passed as a consequence. It is not hard to answer this demand. In Wyoming, equal suffrage has caused the passage of a law that men and women in the employ of the State (including teachers) shall receive equal pay for equal work; has raised the age of protection for girls to eighteen, and has led to the repeal of the law that formerly licensed gambling. Child labor is forbidden, and cruelty to children is severely punished. In Utah, equal suffrage has caused the passage of a law that female teachers in the public schools shall receive the same pay as male teachers, provided they hold certificates of the same grade; also bills raising the age of protection for girls to eighteen, doubling the number of free scholarships in the State Normal School, establishing an art institute. and providing for improved sanitary arrangements in the schools, and for the better protection of the public health in various ways. In Idaho, equal suffrage has caused the passage of bills abolishing licensed gambling, raising the age of protection for girls to eighteen, authorizing city councils to levy a one-mill tax for free reading-rooms and libraries, requiring three per cent of all school PROGRESS moneys to be set aside for the founding of school libraries, and establishing a State Library Commission, two members of which must be women and two others the President of the State University and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Colorado owes to her women the laws establishing a State Industrial School for Girls and a State Home for Dependent Children; removing the emblems from the Australian ballot (the nearest approach to an educational qualification for suffrage,) making fathers and mothers joint guardians of their children, enlarging women's property rights, raising the age of protection for girls to eighteen, introducing the indeterminate sentence, so much desired by the friends of prison reform; establishing parental schools, providing for the care of the feeble-minded, and for the preservation of forest trees; giving the Board of Charities and Correction power to investigate private charitable institutions, and providing an annual appropriation to buy books for the State Library; also in Denver ordinances placing drinking fountains in the streets, forbidding expectoration in public places, and requiring smoke consuming chimneys on all public and business buildings. The Fourteenth General Assembly of Colorado, which has just adjourned, added largely to this list. Ellis Meredith, in the Denver News, notes that while not a single plank of either political party platform was enacted into law, the women got a long list of things they wanted. There are women in both political parties, and on humanitarian measures they generally agree irrespective of party. Among the bills desired by women which were passed by this Legislation are those establishing a juvenile court, making a more stringent compulsory school law, giving mothers equal rights of inheritance with father in the estate of a child who dies intestate, and otherwise enlarging women's property rights; empowering several continuous school districts to make a levy for the erection of a union high school, creating a traveling library commission of women and providing an annual appropriation for it. Among other results of equal suffrage is a much better enforcement of the laws forbidding the employment in factories of children under fourteen, requiring merchants to furnish their saleswomen with seats, regulating the sale of liquor and tobacco to minors, and others of the same general character. Since equal suffrage was granted, the number of no-license towns in Colorado has been more than quadrupled. In all the enfranchised States, equal suffrage has made elections more orderly, has improved the primaries, has made it harder to secure the nomination or election of candidates of notoriously bad character, has made it easier to secure adequate school appropriations, has broadened the minds of women and given them a greater interest and intelligence in regard to public affairs, and has largely increased the number of women serving on educational and charitable boards. Throughout Australia, before the granting of equal suffrage, a married man could will all his property away from his wife, leaving her penniless. She had no right of dower unless he died intestate. In those Australian colonies where women have had a vote, and in those only, the law has now been changed so that part of a man's property must go to his wife and family. * The divorce laws of Australia and New Zealand were modelled upon those of England, by which infidelity on the part of the wife, entitles the husband to a divorce, but infidelity on the part of the husband does not entitle the wife to one. Since woman suffrage was granted, the divorce laws have been equalized, and a number of other beneficent changes have been made. ------ MINISTERS ON EQUAL SUFFAGE. ------- The Christian Endeavor World, of Boston, the organ of the Christian Endeavor Societies of the United States, calls attention to the fact that in four Western States women have for years had full suffrage on the same terms as men. The editor, Amos R. Wells, says in part: Desiring to learn how the women were using their new privilege in those four States, I wrote to a number of clergymen, taking the names at random from the subscription lists of our paper. Evidence Worth Considering. In reply to my inquiries I received twenty-five letters- more than a double jury. All four States were fairly represented. Four leading denominations were named, though most of my correspondents did not tell me to what church they belong. A goodly proportion of them are doctors of divinity; one is chairman of the Democratic county committee; one is a superintendent of a missionary district; all the letters bear marks of thoughtfulness and ability. Where such witnesses agree, their judgment can be relied upon. Numbers of them, moreover, state that before replying they made a canvass of business men and men of standing of all parties and that the opinions they express represent the best sentiment of their communities. In the matter of testimony, character counts far more than mere numbers, and the testimony I shall bring forward is weighty. In the first place, to take a general glance over the letters, they are almost unanimously favorable to woman suffrage. I had asked my correspondents to state whether, in their judgment, the experiment is working well in their community, fairly well, or poorly. One gentleman in Wyoming thought it is working poorly, three in Colorado thought it is working fairly well, and all the rest were positive, and some of them enthusiastic, in their statement that it is working well. But to particularize. Divided Households? Several fears are always brought up when the subject of woman suffrage is agitated. One is that homes will be divided into political hostile camps. On the contrary, an Idaho clergyman voices the opinion of all when he says, "I can find no one who has ever heard of any trouble in homes because of difference in party allegiance;" while a Colorado doctor of divinity declares that "the charge that women will neglect household duties for politics is all folly." Unwomanly Women. Practically all these ministers believe that "there is nothing about casting a ballot that will unsex a woman;" that, as another asserts, "there is nothing any more corrupt in a woman's going to the polls to vote than for her to be in a crowd of men anywhere for a few minutes;" or, as a third remarks, "A lady is no more out of place at the polls than if she were shopping." Women of the Slums. A third objection often put forward is that women of the better class are not seen at the polls, while women of the slums, with the assistance of the bosses, vote a few times extra. "Yes," replies a Colorado pastor,- another writer- "but there are twenty scarlet men in Denver to one scarlet woman;" while another correspondent declares that, when he lived in Denver, "the ladies of Capitol Hill, the aristocratic section of the city, were among the most active women in the campaign;" while in Idaho, "women's political clubs are headed by the most cultured and influential women." Do They Vote? "Will the women care enough about the matter to vote?" Here is the evidence: "O the number registered," says one of my Colorado informants, "very nearly as large a per cent of women as of men." * An Idaho correspondent thinks that this percentage is smaller for the women, but not much smaller. Another Idaho clergyman says that in his State, in 1898, the women cast forty per cent of the votes, and he thinks they cast a larger per cent this year. Another gentleman remarks very sensibly, "There are many men that won't vote at all. That, however, does not make any difference in the justness of allowing men to vote who wish to do so." On the whole, it seems certain that the women of these four States are voting quite as well as they could be expected to vote, considering their lack of training in the duties and responsibilities of citizenship and the newness of the work. Women and the Machine. "Will the women prove to be bitter partisans, or will they set the party bosses at defiance?" The women of Idaho, according to one gentleman, "refuse as a rule to be bound by the action of ring conventions and political bosses." "It is recognized," asserts another, "that, while generally loyal to her party, a woman will 'scratch' a candidate that most men would vote for." With two or three exceptions all my letters join in this conclusion. But my correspondents do not stop with these replies to the fears and criticisms of the opponents of woman suffrage. They point out certain definite gains that have come in their States. Quiet Elections. Nearly all the letters speak enthusiastically of the quiet and orderly elections secured by the presence of women. Often women are judges at the polls. "Our judges of elections are about half women," writes a Colorado friend, "and people are about as orderly at the polls as if at church." Says a man in Idaho, "Our ward was as quiet and orderly as a church last election day. Fully half the voters were women. The presence of women is more elevating." "Little smoking," says another, "no swearing or bad language, no drunkenness, a hundred times more orderly and respectable than before." Thus run all the testimonies. This wholesome influence of the women has reached from the polls to the party caucuses, primaries, conventions, and political meetings. Says a minister in Utah: "The caucus is no longer dominated by those of the baser sort. Drinking, smoking, bad language, are out of order." This good influence has extended naturally to the speakers. Says an Idaho observer: "Our campaign speakers have cleaned up,- on the outside, at least. During the last campaign, speeches were unusually free from abuse, and speakers dealt with principles." Other writers speak of this toning-up of political speeches in their State. Women in Office. A similar service has been accomplished by the women in the State Legislatures. Of Colorado, for instance, one friend writes, "The presence of women in the House of Representatives has banished from that Chamber smoking and other unseemly practices, painfully present in the Senate chamber, where there are no women members." "Our Legislature," declares another, "is far purer now that women help compose it." In the other offices to which women have been elected the unanimous opinion is that they have succeeded admirably. This from Idaho: "For two years we have had a lady as county treasurer, and she has filled her office with entire satisfaction." As county superintendent of schools or as school commissioner, or even (in Idaho at present) as State superintendent of public instruction, women officers seem to be a conspicuous success, and most of my correspondents testify to the value of women voters in work for the schools. Better Nominees. Another point in regard to which all these observers agree is that the female vote has brought about better nominations, and, as a result, better men are chosen to office. "The politicians are afraid of the women," writes a well-known Denver pastor, quoting a prominent lawyer, "'Has he a record that will cause the women to vote against him? is always a question," writes an Idaho correspondent. A third cites the example of a very well-known United States Senator who was defeated for re-election by the women on the ground of his immorality, the state election for legislators turning on that one point. "The party leaders realize," says a fourth clergyman, "that if they place in nomination a man notoriously unclean in his personal life, he will be defeated by the women of his own party." The good women have buried many a corrupt politician in the political graveyard, and may God give strength to their spades! Moral Measures. It seems clear that under the new regime moral questions receive more consideration by the politicians. I am assured that it was fear of the wo- PROGRESS men's vote that secured the passage of Idaho's anti-gambling law. Students of Politics. One most important gain may positively be ascribed to woman suffrage: the increased political intelligence of the women; and this is a great gain, not only as it broadens the women's lives, but in its influence on their children. "The women want to know what they vote for," emphatically says an Idaho minister. "Woman suffrage has been a great educator for all our women," says a Colorado man. "They realize their responsibility, and they study hard, and converse upon political themes. They are much more self-reliant, they are better fitted for all their duties that they were ten years ago." In many localities they have formed political clubs of their own. Woman suffrage makes elections more expensive, but it is a grand school for the mothers of the republic. Some Conclusions. On the whole, woman suffrage in these four States appears to be most felt in local affairs. The vote of the women operates not so much to change results and to disturb whatever political balance previously, existed, as to purify politics at the fountain, rendering it far more certain that clean men and just measures will be placed before the voters. The operation of the new laws has been so easy and natural that the very absence of startling results has startled some of my correspondents. Those that did not want the suffrage at the start now favor it, and the plan has grown decidedly in popularity among both men and women. In fact, these writers are unanimous in declaring that it would be impossible to repeal the woman suffrage laws in their respective States. *In Denver, at the election held in November, 1901, 31,780 men voted and 23,449 women. Women Of Colorado. Mrs. Helen Campbell lately gave an address on equal suffrage in Colorado, where she lived for three years. She said: "Before I went to Colorado, I was sure of the justice of woman suffrage but not its expediency. I am now absolutely sure that is is a good thing for both men and women. "When suffrage was granted, the women felt in duty bound to inform themselves about public affairs, and they questioned their husbands diligently. The air was filled with interrogation points. The Denver Woman's Club, which has nearly a thousand members and includes the best women in the city, had before this concerned itself more with the seventeenth century than with the nineteenth. It now turned its attention to present-day problems. Classes were formed in the women's clubs and the best informed men addressed them on public matters. At ladies' luncheons and dinners the chief topics were no longer the fashions and the servant question, but how best to promote the welfare of the city. "Denver, like so many American cities, was at that time ruled by a 'gang,' and the women exerted themselves to bring about honest municipal government. There are still some very bad things in Denver, but the number of gambling houses is steadily diminishing. The influence of disreputable women on elections is very small. They and the gamblers' wives say that Denver was a pretty good town until the advent of woman suffrage. "At the first election at which women voted, I stayed at the polls for nearly an hour, watching. An old couple came in, and the wife stood back to let her husband vote first, but he motioned her forward with the courtesy of a prince, saying, 'After you, my dear.' Then they went away together with no apparent division of feeling in consequence of having voted. Next came a young couple wheeling a baby carriage. The wife stayed with the baby while the husband voted, and then he stayed with it while she voted. They, too, went away with no sign of quarrelling. Another husband and wife left the baby in its carriage outside, it being a child of placid temperament, while they both came in a voted. There was absolute quietness and order. At the next polling place I found it just the same. "The mere politician has come to dread the women's vote, because the best women are everywhere those who are most interested and active. One charming, sweet-voiced woman whom everybody like, devoted herself to house-to-house visiting among the Hungarian, Italian and German women, explaining to them the meaning of a vote, and holding classes for them. A number of these women have joined the League for Public Beauty, and are working in it. Equal suffrage has led to such comradeship between rich and poor women as I have never seen elsewhere. "Equal suffrage has made the polls more orderly, improved the primaries, made it harder to elect bad candidates and increased the interest and intelligence of women in regard to public affairs. It has greatly enlarged the number of women serving on charitable and educational boards. The women chosen on state and municipal boards are generally representatives of the best, wisest and strongest women in the community. "Colorado has its own little group of 'Antis,' but they are infinitesimal in numbers. "I have looked at equal suffrage in Colorado not sentimentally, but critically; and I feel more and more that nothing could be better for both women and men. It has done even more good to the men than to the women. "One wise mother had been training her five sons for years to understand public questions. She has had a weekly class of about thirty boys, her sons and their school and college mates, and she has taught them not only current events, but the duties of citizenship and what a vote stands for, and how precious it is. Her eldest son cast his first vote at the last presidential election. He went with his mother. There were tears in his eyes as he said to her: 'If there is any good or noble thought in my mind about this act of citizenship it came from you in the beginning. I am glad to be here with you!' I have not seen just that same feeling of sons toward their mothers anywhere else. "The young woman who casts her first vote feels as the young Roman did when he put on the toga; there is a sense of solemnity about it. "There are still some bad and stupid things done in Colorado, but its civilization is of the type that stands for growth, and the man who lives in Colorado is even more fortunate than the woman who lives there." Equal Suffrage In New Zealand Hon. Hugh H. Lusk, a former member of the Parliament of New Zealand, and the author of several books upon that country, has been travelling in America for his health. At a public meeting, Mr. Lusk said in regard to woman's ballot: The family is the foundation of the State. We find that equal suffrage is the greatest family bond and tie, the greatest strengthener of family life. Under equal suffrage, the family is taking the place of the individual. People are coming to vote as families. The persons whom they approve when they talk them over in the family are those whom they vote for when they go to the polls. The members of a family generally vote alike. though it is impossible to swear to this, as the ballot is absolutely secret. But we see it in the changed character of the men who are elected. The men who are successful now are not just the same sort that were successful before. Character is more regarded than cleverness. It is asked about every candidate, "Has he a good record? Is he above suspicion, an honorable man, a useful citizen, pure of any suspicion of complicity, with corrupt politics?" That is the man who, under the combined suffrage of men and women gets the largest number of votes and is elected. This is the greatest benefit that comes from suffrage. I do not deify suffrage. There might be a state of things in which universal suffrage would become the worst of tyrannies; but with both men and women voting, there is little danger of this. I see in New York the grievous results of half universal suffrage; but I believe these would be swept away by the other half. Up to 1877, we had no idea of giving women suffrage in New Zealand, and it was a high tribute to the practical instinct of the race to which we belong that the movement has gone on so rapidly there. It was done, not by argument, but by experiment. The first experiment was the extension of suffrage to a small class of women. By the Education Act of 1877, the householders of each district were empowered to elect a committee of seven of their number to have charge of the schools of the district. I had much to to do with this Act. While the bill was in committee, another member suggested to me that it would be a good thing to leave out the word "male" before "householder." I saw no objection, and moved it. This was the first thin end of the big wedge by which full suffrage has now been given to all the women of New Zealand. The women got the school vote, and used it. They did not say, "Oh, dear, no, it wouldn't be proper!" They went to the polls and voted for the best men. They took so much interest that at the next election some women were elected to the school boards; and they showed so much aptitude for this sort of work that when in 1882, the license question came up, it was proposed that women rate-payers, as well as men rate-payers, should help choose the board of commissioners in each district who control the issuing of licenses. This met with great objection. We were told that now indeed we should utterly destroy the character of the ladies, for all the worst element would be brought in contact with them, and would make things very unpleasant for them. We said, "We don't believe the men of New Zealand are as bad as you think, and if they are, they are not to be trusted to vote alone for these boards of license commissioners." The women were given the license vote. To the surprise and disappointment of their opponents, they voted well and met with no trouble, and certainly they greatly improved the licensing boards. Then we felt that we could go a little further, and in 1886 we gave women the right to vote at municipal elections and to serve on municipal boards. I know one woman who acted for two years as mayor (not mayoress) of a very prosperous little town, and did as well as any mayor could have done. I have always said what I thought, and in some cases said it till I was in danger of being pelted off the platform. After the passage of the Educational Act, I had difficulty for some time in appearing on platforms without being pelted with something. That is one minor reason why I believe in woman suffrage. No one is pelted now. Women attend all the political meetings, and it has done an immense deal of good. The men behave a great deal better. When men congregat by themselves, they get excited, and sometimes misbehave. Women perhaps do the same. It is not good for men, or women either, to be alone. It seemed queer at first to find half the benches at a political meeting occupied by ladies; but when the men have got accustomed to it, they do not like the other thing. When they found that they could take their wives and daughters to these meetings, and afterwards take them home and talk about it, it was the beginning of a new life for the family, a life of ideas and interests in common, and a unison of thought. The influence of equal suffrage has been rather against the milliners and dressmakers; there is not so much time for criticising one's neighbors' hats and bonnets, and cloaks. Gossip cannot be cured in any way so well as by practice in taking an interest in public affairs. New Zealand is a little distant island, but the experiments that we are trying, you will try, and I believe that you will find equal suffrage the greatest blessing you have ever experienced. Clubs celebrating Elizabeth Cady Stanton's birthday can procure souvenirs by writing to Headquarters, Warren, Ohio. The souvenir is a group picture of Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch, and Nora Stanton Blatch. Friday Evening pg 4 The Thirty-Second Annual Convention of the National-American Woman Suffrage Association at The Church of Our Father, Corner 13th and L Sts., N. W., Washington, D. C., February 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14, 1900. First Executive Meeting, at Riggs House, 8 P. M., Wednesday, February 7. Public Sessions at 10 A. M. and 8 P. M. Admissions to all Sessions Free. Collections will be taken in the evening. Hotel Headquarters at the Riggs House, Corner 15th and G Streets. [Mrs. Elnora M. Dahcock] [Dunkik - The Z. ?] Directory-- For the convenience of delegates who will be entertained in different parts of the city, a directory will be placed in the ante-room, in which each delegate is requested to inscribe name and address as early in the Convention as possible. Post Office-- A Post Office will be established in the ante-room. All mail addressed to the Church can be called for at this post office from 9.30 to 10 each morning of the Convention, and for one-half hour immediately succeeding the adjournment of the morning and afternoon sessions. Interviews-- Members of the Convention will realize that courtesy demands that no conversations be carried on in the auditorium or on the platform during sessions. Persons desiring interviews are, therefore, requested to send their cards to the platform by the page who will be in attendance, thus securing an announcement of their presence to meet their friends in the reception room. Railroad Certificates-- All railroad certificates must be handed to Mary G. Hay, Chairman of Committee on Railroad Rates, on or before Tuesday, February 13th. The special agent of the Trunk Line Association will be in attendance to validate certificates February 12th and 13th. After these have been signed by Miss Hay and the railroad agent, they will be returned to the owners. Executive Committee Meetings-- Executive Committee Meetings will be announced on the platform. Thursday, February 8. 10 O'clock. Convention called to order by the President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY. Roll-Call of Officers, Vice-Presidents and State members of the Executive Committee, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. Minutes of the closing session of the Thirty-First Annual Convention. Appointments of Time-keeper. Announcements of Committees on Finance, Courtesies, Credentials, etc. Report of the Vice-President-at-Large, REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW Report of the Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY. Reports of Committees: Federal Suffrage. . . . . . . . .SARAH CLAY BENNETT, Chairman. Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . LAURA M. JOHNS, Chairman. Presidential Suffrage . . . . . . HENRY B. BLACKWELL, Chairman. Industrial Problems Affecting Women and Children, CLARA BEWICK COLBY, Chairman. Reports of Delegates to Quinquennial of International Council of Women} SUSAN B. ANTHONY. REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW. Addresses by State Presidents: Alabama. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________ Arizona. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . _________ California. . . . . . . . . . . . MRS. MARY W. SWIFT. Colorado. . . . . . . . . . . . . AMY K. CORNWALL. Connecticut. . . . . . . ISABELLA BEECHER HOOKER. Delaware . . . . . . . . . EMMA LORE, Representative. District of Columbia. . . . ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON. Georgia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________ Evening, 8 O'clock. Women's Work in Philanthropy, ISABEL C. BARROWS, Massachusetts. The Winning of Educational Freedom, HARRIET MAY MILLS, New York. The Social Transformation. . . . MARY C.C. BRADFORD, Colorado. Moral and Material Law Alike Immutable and Inexorable, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, New York. 3 Friday, February 9. Morning, 10 O'clock. Report of Committee on Plan of Work Evelyn H. Belden, Chairman. Report of Treasurer Harriet Taylor Upton. Addresses by State Presidents: Illinois Catherine Waugh McCulloch. Indiana - Iowa - Kansas Annie L. Diggs. Kentucky Laura Clay. Louisiana Caroline E. Merrick. Maryland Mary Bentley Thomas. Massachusetts Henry B. Blackwell, Representative. Massachusetts, National, Lavina A. Hatch, Representative. Michigan - Minnesota - Montana - Afternoon, 3 O'clock. Work Conference. Organization. Presiding Officer Mary G. Hay, Secretary of Committee on Organization. The Need of Organization Mary G. Hay Discussion How Obstacles to Organization May Be Overcome, Laura A. Gregg, National Organizer, Kansas. Discussion. How to Render Organization Permanent, Addie M. Johnson, Vice-President Missouri E. S. A., Elizabeth J. Hauser, Corresponding Secretary Ohio W. S. A. Discussion. The Benefit of a State Organizer, Harriet May Mills, Chairman Committee on Organization, New York State, W. S. A. Discussion. Is the Laborer Worthy of His Hire? Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Vice-President N. A. W. S. A. Discussion. Evening, 8 O'clock. The Training of the Woman Journalist, Ida Husted Harper, California. New Professions for Women Centering in the Home, Anna Barrows, Literary Editor "American Kitchen Magazine," Massachusetts. The Duty of the Women Citizens of the United States in the Present Political Crisis Isabella Beecher Hooker, Connecticut. The Justice of Woman Suffrage Mary Church Terrell, D. C. Woman's Position in the Ministry Rev. Ida C. Hultin, Illinois. 4 Saturday, February 10. Morning, 10 O'clock. Reports of Committees: Credentials, Harriet Taylor Upton, Chairman. Press Work, Elnora M. Babcock, Chairman. Addresses by State Presidents: Mississippi Hala Hammond Butt. Missouri Ella Harrison Nebraska - New Mexico - New York Ella Hawley Crossett, Representative. North Carolina - North Dakota Flora Blackman Naylor. Ohio Hattie A. Sachs, Representative. Oklahoma - Pennsylvania Lucretia L. Blankenburg. Rhode Island Charlotte B. Wilbour, Representative. South Carolina Virginia D. Young. South Dakota - Afternoon, 3 O'clock Work Conference. Legislation. Presiding Officer Laura M. Johns, Chairman of Committee on Legislation. The Need of Changed Laws Laura M. Johns, Kansas. The Effect of Activity in Legislation upon State Suffrage Associations, Laura Clay, President Kentucky E. S. A. The Best Method of Legislative Work, Lucretia L. Blankenburg, President Pennsylvania W. S. A. Discussion. Evening, 8 O'clock. Our Great Leaders CLARA BEWICK COLBY, Nebraska. The Possibilities of Even a Scrap of Suffrage, KATE M. GORDON, Louisiana. Conditions of the Wage-Earning Women of Our Country, GAIL LAUGHLIN, New York. War and the Work of Women, HARRIOT STANTON BLATCH, England. 5 MONDAY, February 12. Morning, 10 O'clock. Report of Committees: Congressional Work. . SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Chairman. Resolutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________ Amendments to Constitution. Election of Officers. Afternoon, 3 O'clock. WORK CONFERENCE. CONVENTIONS. Presiding Officer, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman of Committee to Organization. The Defects of Conventions. . . . . CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, New York. Reports: How to Prepare and Receive Them. PRISCILLA DUDLEY HACKSTAFF, Treasurer New York State W. S. A. Programs: How to Prepare Them . LUCY HOBART DAY, President Maine W. S. A. Audiences: How to Secure Them. METTIE LAUB ROMANS, Iowa Member of Nat'l Executive Committee. Elections: How to Conduct Them. Parliamentary Drill . . . . . . CAROLINE B. BUELL, Connecticut. Evening 8 O'clock. Municipal Suffrage. . . . . . ANNIE L. DIGGS, State Librarian, Kansas. The Story of Woman Suffrage in the South. VIRGINIA D. YOUNG, South Carolina. The Judgment of Minerva. . . . . FLORENCE HOWE HALL, New Jersey. Woman's Position in the Law. . . . . DIANA HIRSCHLER, Massachusetts. A Review of the Remonstrant. . . . . HELEN A. SHAW, Massachusetts. 6 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13. Morning, 10 O'clock. Congressional Hearings. Afternoon, 3 O'clock. WORK CONFERENCE. PRESS WORK. Presiding Officer, ELNORA M. BABCOCK, Chairman of Committee on Press Work. Addresses and Discussion by State Chairman of Committee on Press Work. Evening, 8 O'clock. The Village Beautiful. . . . . MABEL LOOMIS TODD, Massachusetts. Women in the Street Cleaning Department, . . A. EMMAGENE PAUL, Superintendent Street Cleaning Department, First Ward, Chicago, Ill. The Russian Woman. . . . . . . . SOPHIE FRIEDLAND, Russia. Women on Managing Boards. . . . . . DR. JULIA HOLMES SMITH, Dean of National Medical College, Illinois. The Duties of Freedom. . ELIZABETH BURRILL CURTIS, New York. 7 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14. Morning, 10 O'clock. Addresses by State Presidents: New Jersey. . . . . . . . . FLORENCE HOWE HALL. Tennessee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________ Vermont. . . MRS. CLINTON H. SMITH, Representative. Washington . MRS. MARY W. CUSHMAN, Representative. West Virginia. . . . . . . . BEULAH BOYD RITCHIE. Wisconsin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ________ Oregon. . . . . . . . . . ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY. Reports of Committees on Course of Study Headquarters Organization} CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Chairman. Success in Sight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ABIGAIL SCOTT DUNIWAY, Oregon. Our Problem. . . . . . . . . . . CAROLINE HALLOWELL MILLER, Maryland. The Woman's Vote in Colorado. . . HON. JOHN C. BELL, Member of Congress. The Three I's. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, New York. Closing Address of the President. . . . . . . SUSAN B. ANTHONY, New York. 8 Under the auspices of the National American Woman Suffrage Association a public meeting to celebrate the eightieth birthday of Susan B. Anthony will be held at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of February 15th at the Lafayette Square Opera House. All who are interested are invited to attend. Miss Anthony's birthday has also been chosen as the date on which the Board of Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art open their collection of art treasures to a private view, complimentary to the National-American Woman Suffrage Association. The interest of the evening will, of course, centre about Miss Anthony, who, together with some members of her Birthday Celebration Committee, will receive from 9 to 11 in the evening. Delegates will receive the necessary cards for the reception at the Convention Post Office. 9 OFFICERS. Honorary President, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, 250 West Ninety-Fourth Street, New York. President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Rochester, N.Y. Vice-President-at-Large, REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, 1830 Diamond Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, 1483 North Fifty-Second Street, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary, ALLICE STONE BLACKWELL, 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass. Treasurer, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Warren, Ohio. Auditors: {LAURA CLAY, Kentucky, CATHARINE WAUGH McCULLOCH, Illinois. Chairman Committee on Organization, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, 107 World Building, New York. ----- LOCAL COMMITTEES. Arrangements. { LUCY E. ANTHONY, EMMA M. GILLETT, NETTIE LOVISA WHITE. Railroad Rates. . . . . . . . . . . . . MARY G. HAY. Convention Press Work. . . . . ELNORA M. BABCOCK. Sunday Services. {ELLEN POWELL THOMPSON, LUCY E. ANTHONY. Hospitality. . . . { HELEN RAND TINDALL, 2103 California, Ave., MRS. J.R. HAWLEY, MISS FLORENCE D. SPOFFORD, FRANKLIN A. GARDNER, M.D. MRS. WILLIAM GEDDIS, MRS. CLARA BEWICK COLBY, MRS. RUFUS SAXTON, DR. ANITA NEWCOMB MCGEE, DR. CLARA MACNAUGHTON, MRS. JEANE F. BRACKETT. National Headquarters, 107 World Building, New York, 10 Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, held in Washington, D. C., January 16, 17, 18, 19, 1893. Edited by Harriet Taylor Upton, Press Committee for 1892. National Headquarters: 1328 I Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. Gott and DePue, Stenographers. Washington, D. C.: Stormont & Jackson, Printers. 1893. PREFACE ______ Since the union of the National and the American Woman Suffrage Associations there has been no pamphlet report of the annual convention until now. The work of preparing this report was placed in the hands of the Press Committee of '92, with instructions to engage a stenographer, to condense State reports, and to omit the publication of evening speeches. The delay in issuing the pamphlet was due to the fact that nearly every page had to be verified. The committee wished to make this hand-book of the Association for the year; with all committees in full, all lists in alphabetical order, all names properly spelled, and addresses correctly given. The delegates and officers had been so unaccustomed to preparing their reports for printing that names were illegible, figures were indistinct, and pages unnumbered. Committees were dilatory in submitting their financial reports. Many of the State reports were not officially signed. Numbers of regularly elected delegates did not deem it necessary to bring with them regularly signed credentials, but filled out with pencil new credentials at the convention; in some case giving only their surname. States were late in sending in dues, and we go to press with one State uncertain as to correctness. None of these shortcomings are referred to in order to chide the shortcomer, but to show that all the errors in this report can not be laid at the door of the Press Committee. Another year, we will all have profited by our experiences. The committee is greatly indebted to Miss Anthony, whose advice was invaluable and whose longer experience and acquaintance with the work and the workers, enabled many corrections to be made which could not have been made without her help. The convention numbers of the Woman's Tribune and the Woman's Journal were of great assistance. The editors and the committee worked together to make both papers and the pamphlet contain matter of interest to suffragists. The committee is aware of some irregularities in the report; for instance, the memorial speeches were neither discussions not reports of committees, and were not therefore, under the rules established, properly publishable. Yet here were our veteran workers telling us of the deeds of their departed associates, explaining their sacrifices and depicting their strong characters, and it seemed but duty to preserve such history. During the time (six weeks) which it has taken to prepare this book, the committee has tried to keep in mind the interest of the Association, and it believes that the spirit of gentleness and justice which existed among the delegates and members of the Twenty-fifth Annual Convention will be found with the readers of this report. Harriet Taylor Upton, Chairman Press Committee N.A.W.S.A. for 1892. THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL-AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION To arouse that divine discontent which shall make women ashamed to remain longer in the attitude of wards in their own country: to stir the dormant sense of justice which shall make men unwilling to monopolize all power, as if women were not to be trusted--such is the task of the coming Twenty-fifth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. This Convention will be held in Metzerott Music Hall, corner of F and 12th Streets N.W., Washington, D.C., January 15 to 19, 1893. Until women are enfranchised, they cannot be considered free moral agents. Their influence over their children is hampered, their attempts at works of philanthropy enfeebled, their position in the industrial world endangered, so long as they remain political minors, constrained to obey laws they have no voice in making. The mission of the National American Woman Suffrage Association is to awaken public opinion to the necessity of bringing the practice of this United States Government into harmony with its professed principles. Professing itself a government of the people, it is actually an oligarchy of men. Professing that the "citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities in the several States," this United States Government permits the States deliberately to deprive one-half its people--its women--of the only legitimate means of taking part in the government--the use of the ballot. Such glaring inconsistency between profession and practice is to be condemned in the interest of public morality. In laboring to obtain their enfranchisement, women work, therefore, not only for themselves, but for the establishment of national honor and the elevation of the whole human race. Susan B. Anthony, President. Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Vice-President-at-large. Rachel Foster Avery, Cor. Secretary. Alice Stone Blackwell, Rec. Secretary. Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. Wm. Dudley Foulke, Auditor. The Twenty-fifth Annual Convention OF THE National-American Woman Suffrage Association WILL BE HELD IN Metzerott's Music Hall, Cor. F and 12 Sts. Washington, D.C. January 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1893. First Executive Meeting, 9 A.M., Monday January 16. Public Sessions at 10 A.M., 2.30 and 8 P.M. Religious Services, Sunday, January 15, 3 P.M. Last Executive Meeting, 10 A.M., Friday January 20. Tickets for sale at Metzerott's Music Store, 1110 F Street. Sunday Meeting, Morning and Afternoon Sessions, FREE. Single Ticket, without reserved seat, 25 cents. Single Ticket, with reserved seat, 35 cents. Season Ticket, with reserved seat (four evenings), $1.00. The R. R. Secretary will sign certificates at the Hall, Tuesday and Wednesday. Reception. The District Association will tender a reception to the officers of the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, delegates and visitors at Willard's Hotel, Friday Evening, January 20th. A cordial invitation is extended to all friends of woman's progress to the present. Sunday, January 15th. Religious Services, 3 p. m. Voluntary. Hymn Prayer Scripture Lesson Hymn : -- "God's Glory is a Wondrous Thing." Sermon : -- Text, Isaiah lviii : 9 - 12, Rev. Annis F. Eastman, N. Y. Collection. Doxology. Benediction. "The Right Must Win." God's glory is a wondrous thing. Most strange in all its ways; And, of all things on earth, least like What men agree to praise. Muse on His justice, downcast soul! Muse, and take better heart; Back with thine angel to the field, And bravely do thy part. For right is right, since God is God; And right the day must win; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin. -- Frederick W. Faber. Monday , January 16th. Executive Committee Meeting, 9 A. M. Morning, 10 o'clock. Convention Called To Order By the President, Susan B. Anthony. Roll-Call of Officers, Vice-Presidents, and State Members of the Executive Committee. Minutes of the Closing Business Session of the XXIVth Annual Convention, Alice Stone Blackwell, Rec. Sec. Report of the Vice-President-At-Large, . . . Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. Report of the Corresponding Secretary, . . Rachel Foster Avery. Report of Treasurer. . . . . . . . Harriet Taylor Upton. Announcement of Committees on Credentials, Courtesies, Finance and Resolutions. Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock Memorial Service. Report of Credentials Committee Amendments of the Constitution and By-Laws. Evening, 8 o'clock. Prayer Music. Address of Welcome, Hon. J. M. Carey, of Wyoming. President's Address, Susan B. Anthony, New York. Tuesday, January 17th. Morning, 10 o'clock. Minutes. Report of Committee on the Press. Harriet Taylor Upton, Ohio Report of Kansas Constitutional Campaign Committee Laura M. Johns. Reports By Presidents of Auxiliary State Societies. Kansas, Laura M. Johns. Kentucky, Laura Clay. Massachusetts, Lucy Stone. Massachusetts, (National) A. R. Dickinson. Michigan, Emily B. Ketcham. Minnesota, Julia B. Nelson. Montano, Marie L. Mason Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock. Minutes. Reports By Presidents of Auxiliary State Societies New Hampshire, Armenia S. White Rhode Island, Elizabeth B. Chace Pennsylvania, Lucretia L. Blankenburg Utah, Sarah M. Kimball Ohio, Caroline McCullough Everhard Oregon, Lydia M. Hunt Vermont, Lucinda A. Chandler New York, Jean Brooks Greenleaf New Jersey, Amelia D. Pope Washington, A. H. H. Stuart Evening, 8 o'clock. Prayer. Music. Address :-- "The World's Congress of Representative Women," May Wright Sewall, Pres. National Council of Women, Indiana. Address :-- "Best Methods of Interesting Women in Suffrage," Ellen Battelle Dietrick, Massachusetts. Address :-- "The Girl of the Future," Ruth C. D. Havens, District of Columbia Address :-- "Our Forgotten Foremothers," Lillie Devereux Blake, New York. Wednesday, January 18th. Morning, 10 o'clock Minutes Report of Committee on Southern Work, Laura Clay, Kentucky Southern Women and Suffrage, Orra Langhorne, Virginia. Effective Work in the South, Mrs. E. S. Hildreth, Alabama Migratory Conventions, Kate Cunningham, Arkansas, Reports From Presidents of Auxiliary State Societies: Arkansas, Clara A. McDiarmid Georgia, Claudia B. Howard Louisiana, Caroline E. Merrick Maryland, Mary Bentley Thomas Missouri, Virginia Hedges Tennessee, Lide Meriwether South Carolina, Virginia D. Young Maine, Hannah J. Bailey Nebraska, Clara B. Colby Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock Minutes Election of Officers Report of Committee on Resolutions Discussion Evening, 8 o'clock Prayer Music Report :-- Governors' Opinions on Woman Suffrage, Mary H. Williams, Nebraska Address :-- "Comparisons Are Odious," Carrie Lane Chapman, New York. Address :-- "Presidential Woman Suffrage by Statute," H. B. Blackwell, Massachusetts. Thursday, January 19th Morning, 10 o'clock Minutes Report of Congressional Committee, Susan B. Anthony, New York Report of Territorial Committee, Ada M. Jarrett, Ch., New Mexico Report of Committee on Federal Suffrage, Clara Bewick Colby, Nebraska Discussion on Federal Suffrage, Led by Sara Winthrop Smith, Connecticut Afternoon, 2.30 o'clock Minutes Reports From Presidents of Auxiliary State Societies California, Laura DeForce Gordon Colorado, Louise M. Tyler Connecticut, Isabella Beecher Hooker District of Columbia, Helen Rand Tindall South Dakota, Irene Adams Illinois, Mary E. Holmes Indiana, Helen M. Gougar Iowa, Estelle T. Smith Report of the Columbian Exposition Committee, Rachel Foster Avery, Ch., Pennsylvania Discussion Evening, 8 o'clock Prayer Music Address :-- "Women in Industry," Hon. Carroll D. Wright, District of Columbia Poem :-- "The Waking South," Henderson Dangerfield, Virginia Address :-- "The Present Political Status of Woman," Harriet May Mills, New York Address :-- "The America Undiscovered by Columbus," Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Pennsylvania Adjournment Friday, January 20th Morning, 10 o'clock Executive Committee Meeting (This meeting will be held at the Suffrage Parlors, 1328 I Street.) Suggestions to Delegates. 1. Each delegate should provide herself with pencil and paper, otherwise many suggestions and much valuable information will be lost. 2. Any delegate desiring to speak will rise and address the chair, give name and residence, and wait for recognition by the presiding officer. 3. Motions and resolutions should be reduced to writing, and after reading, placed in the hands of the Recording Secretary. 4. To prevent loss of time and unnecessary confusion, delegates will confine their remarks closely to the question under discussion, or the motion before the Convention, and speak but once upon any given question, and will not occupy more than three minutes in speaking, except by permission of the Convention. 5. Each delegate will please wear the yellow ribbon. 6. For general rules, controlling the proceedings of the Convention, Roberts' Rules of Order is the approved authority. National-American Woman Suffrage Association. Honorary Presidents: Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Lucy Stone. President, Susan B. Anthony, 17 Madison St, Rochester, N. Y. Vice-President-at_Large, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary Rachel Foster Avery, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary, Alice Stone Blackwell, 3 Park St., Boston, Mass. Treasurer, Harriet Taylor Upton, 1328 I St. N. W., Washington, D. C. Auditors: May Wright Sewall, Hon. Wm. Dudley Foulke. BUSINESS HEADQUARTERS at Suffrage Parlors, 1328 I Street N. W. HOTEL HEADQUARTERS at Willard's. MINUTES of the TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION of the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. The Twenty-fifth Annual Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association opened with a religious service at three o'clock on Sunday, the fifteenth of January, 1893. Susan B. Anthony announced the opening hymn. Dr. Thomas, of the People's Church, of Chicago, offered prayer. Rev. Anna H. Shaw read the second hymn, and Rev. Annis F. Eastman, a regularly ordained minister of the Congregational Church, delivered the sermon : Isaiah lviii : 9, 10, 11, 12 ; Matthew xxi : 31, 46. * * * * * " If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and speaking wickedly, and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul (give to the hungry soul that which thy soul desireth), then shall thy light rise in the darkness and thine obscurity shall be as the noonday : and the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in dry places and make strong thy bones ; and thou shalt be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. " Here is given a paragraph or two from the sermon. It is to be regretted that we have not space for it all: Let us consider, then, these conditions of spiritual life which Isaiah gives us in detail. " If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke. " It is a sorrowful fact in human history that no sooner do men and women set themselves to living together than the 10 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. stronger begin to prey upon the weaker; so the yokes of Isaiah's time have their counterpart in our own. You are not going out in a world where you will be tempted to hold your fellow-man in actual servitude. The days of human serfdom have passed in our land, but you will be able to put a crushing weight of bondage into any relationship which you may sustain in life. You can make the woman who works for you by the day feel as if you owned her; you can lay the yoke of your pride, your prejudice, your vanity upon the neck of any one near to you who happens to be a little weaker than yourself. The most galling yokes which we place upon each other are unseen, unpalpable. In the sacredness of our homes we are placing yokes upon each other. The hardest thing in the world for some of us to do would be to unloose the yoke of our influence upon that one who stands nearest to us. We pity the weak, pliant, yielding nature; let us reserve some pity for the strong -- the strong will that must have its way --- that knows not ruth nor rust until it has bowed to its behest the sacred rights of others. It is pitiful to be weak; it is awful to be strong. "Take away the yoke." Look about you; follow the channels of influence by which your life flows out to touch each others' lives and ask yourselves this question: What advantages would it be to any of them if my place were vacant? Would my removal be for freedom to any soul? Would it mean a better chance for some one else to live a freer life from within? Would the swift sorrow of my death be more easily cured than the steady strain of my demanding, complaining, selfish living? If to such questions you must in honesty answer yea, then Isaiah's message is for you. Remove the yoke! Forbear in any way to bind your fellows, for there is One who, in the end, shall break every yoke and let the oppressed go free. If you are selfish, suspicious, proud, envious; if there is in you any unsocial spirit, somebody is being oppressed by it. So all human society, home, family, and church life may become occasions of the most exquisite torture in which every bitter, hard, and selfish thought in our hearts has power to bruise those bound up in the bundle of life with us. Miss Anthony made announcements for the following day. A collection was taken up, the doxology sung, and Rev. ANNA H. SHAW pronounced the benediction. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 11 MONDAY, January 16th, 1893. ________ MORNING SESSION. The first business meeting of the Convention was the preliminary Executive Committee meeting held in one of the committee rooms at Metzerott Music Hall, on Monday, January 15th, at 9 A.M. At this meeting the minutes of the last Executive Committee meeting were read and accepted. It was moved by L. A. HATCH, Mass. that the efforts of the Association during the coming year be concentrated on Kansas and New York. Amended, on motion of Mrs. GREENLEAF, New York, that the efforts of the Association be concentrated on Kansas. This amendment was offered because the constitutional convention which was to have been held in New York, has been postponed. It was decided to recommend the States to make a special feature of securing a woman's day at State and county fairs. RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Pa., said it would be found much easier to organize suffrage societies in small places, if such societies were not expected to meet more than once a year. It was decided that a form of constitution embodying this idea be prepared, if possible, in time to be submitted to the Business Committee and printed in this year's report, and that the adoption of this constitution be recommended to the local associations. As the Indiana W. S. A. had this year elected no delegate to the National Convention, and as ALICE WAUGH had been the regularly accredited delegate last year, it was voted that her credentials be regarded as holding over. 12 Minutes of the Suffrage Convention The Convention proper was called to order at 10 o'clock A. M. by Susan B. Anthony, President, who announced that the Secretary would call the roll of States, and the State president, member of the Executive Committee, or the person appointed as leader of the State delegation, should answer for the State and name the number of delegates present. A discussion arose as to the number of votes a State was entitled to. It was stated that each State had two delegates, ex officio -- its president and its member of Executive Committee; it has three delegates by virtue of auxiliaryship, so that every auxiliary State has five votes. It then has, beside that, one delegate for every hundred members. This having been satisfactorily settled, the roll of States was called, after which the names of the officers of the National Association were also called. The President announced that the preliminary Executive meeting had decided that the Treasurer be chairman of the Committee on Credentials, and that she be empowered to select her allies. Mrs. Upton, the Treasurer, therefore appointed Lucy E. Anthony to act with here. The President then introduced Rev. Anna H. Shaw, who gave her report as Vice-President-at-Large. Madam President and Friends: I listened to somebody last night, and was misled by being told that the Convention would not hold a session this morning, but would meet this afternoon. As I shall not be here to-morrow or the next day, I thought I would not have to give my report. Immediately after the close of our annual convention last year I started West, and the first work I did as your officer was to attend the Interstate Convention of Kansas and Missouri at Kansas City, at which time was held a State meeting and new officers were elected. I would like to say that there has nothing taken place in that part of the country for a long time which has aroused such enthusiasm as this Interstate Convention. It Minutes of the Suffrage Convention 13 was the fashionable event of last spring in Kansas City. The papers made magnificent portraits of all the members present and sent them about the State and they were copied in other papers, and I never saw such handsome women gotten out of charcoal sketches as were there produced. The reports were copied all over both States, and the result of this convention in Kansas City was that there was not a building in the city large enough to hold the crowds. Even at the day meetings hundreds of people went away and could not get into the building. At the night meetings thousands of people, it is said, were turned away. This Interstate Convention was the opening of the most remarkable series of conventions held in Kansas since our heroes went there twenty-five years ago; and from these conventions not only has the State of Kansas been able to organize many new societies, but sentiment was so stirred up that the Republican and People's party inserted a suffrage plank in their platform. I have, from that time to this, been traveling over the West, and have spoken on the subject of suffrage in season and out of season. There seems to be a mistaken belief on the part of many that I am traveling under the direction of the National Woman Suffrage Association, from which I am receiving a rich harvest. The fact is that in my work I rarely speak as a representative of the Suffrage Association. The States are not so organized that they can call speakers and pay for them. My work has been largely in appearing for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in lecture courses, and sometimes for the Woman Suffrage Association. I have during the year given, in temperance associations, one hundred and thirty-two lectures; in literary courses I have spoken fifty-four times. I have in every case given a woman suffrage lecture. [Applause.] In every one of those literary courses I am told that I am the first woman who has been invited to speak on woman suffrage. It has been a great condescension on their part, but I have rejoiced in the name of our society, because we have had fifty-four opportunities in literary courses where they pay the bills and draw the crowds and it costs us not a cent; and we have had fifty-four different meetings and audiences such as we could not get in a regular suffrage meeting. Therefore, I consider that the best part of my work has been the work I have been able to do in literary societies. Of course they called it by some other name, but it makes no difference what the name is, the lecture is always the same. [Laughter.] I have spoken twenty-five times for suffrage organizations during the year, with the exception of the thirty-two lectures I gave in the 14 Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. Kansas campaign in the spring; so I have given during the year, in my field work, two hundred and fifteen lectures for which I received pay. I have given gratuitously to the service of our cause lectures amounting to $1,265. I believe that the work done through the lecture field in this way has been helpful. In Canal Dover, Ohio, where I spoke before a literary society, a gentleman the following day obtained thirty-four subscriptions to the Woman's Tribune. So the lecture did something for woman suffrage in that town; and in several of the towns where I have lectured in literary societies, clubs have been organized. The President: If you don't want your President to talk you must not have me for President. Miss Shaw was in Bradford, Pennsylvania, in the spring after our last annual meeting. As she had been elected Vice-President-at-Large, I wanted to talk with her and she was to come to me, but a telegram came saying that somebody wanted her to go somewhere else to speak. I put on my bonnet and went down to her. The people heard I was in town and they telephoned from Bradford for me to go back and speak on Sunday evening. I went and spoke in the opera house. Miss Shaw went with me and made the biggest part of the speech. Miss Shaw had been engaged to lecture on Thursday night previous by the Young Men's Christian Association, and the next night by the Temperance Union; so the Y. M. C. A. footed the bill for the first suffrage speech in Bradford and the Temperance Society footed the bill for the second suffrage speech in that town, and the people all together footed the bill for the third one. A collection was taken up -- I don't know how much. I know they paid me thirty dollars out of it. Miss Shaw did not get any of that; I thought I had a right to all of it. There was an earnest request made for some one to stay there over Monday. Miss Shaw had her engagements and could not stay, I had none and could, and on washing day we met at ten o'clock and I helped to organize a society with the very best women in the whole village for president and secretary, and they are both here as delegates, etc. That's what was done on one washingday morning in that town of Bradford, and the National Suffrage Association never paid one dime to secure that organization. And I want to make all the delegates feel that wherever any speaker comes and makes a good suffrage speech the seed is sown and the fruit sure to be gathered. Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. 15 Miss Shaw continuing: I left out two points: 1st. That I went with your National President to the nominating convention of the People's party at Omaha, and we had a most interesting time in trying to convert the gentlemen of that convention to the belief that women were "people." That they were no less people than a great many people who are not people, strictly speaking. We tried to convince them that monopoly of sex was as bad as a monopoly of railroads, and a great deal worse. We worked with them two or three days, and I hope I did some good. 2d. I was to be present at the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention at Denver, and was appointed as a representative of your society. I went, and Miss Willard introduced me as a national fraternal delegate from the Woman Suffrage Association. I made my little speech, and the whole convention arose and waved their handherchiefs at the message sent by the Woman Sufffrage Association. One woman jumped to her feet and moved that a telegram be returned from that convention, giving its sisterly sympathy for the Woan Suffrage Association. Miss Willard got up and said, :Shoo, ladies ; this is different from what it was in Washington, when you refused to let me have Miss Anthony on my platfor. Things are coming around, girls." It showed their hearty good-will and sympathy with our society. The President: I meant to ask you about accepting the report of the Vice- President-at-Large, but it is accepted by your hearty hand-clapping. We will now listen to the report of the Corresponding Secretary. Rachel Foster Avery, Pa. : The work of the Association for the last year has been of a uniforly progressive character, and, while no unusual lines have been undertaken, I can report steady progress. We have now thirty-three States auxiliary, and represent-atives in two Territories. The main work of the year has been along the line of the Columbian Exposition Commitee, and will appear in the report of that committee. Early in the year a request was received from the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition, asking for replies to questions which, if answered, would enable us to have our Assocaition represented in the encyclopedia of woman's organizations which they planned to have pub-lished 16 lished. I sent questions to the vice-presidents asking for replies as soon as possible, and urged the matter upon their attention, making it a point to have as good a showing as might be. Still there were a number who did not answer at all, even though in some cases they were written to three times. According to the information received, the National American Woman Suffrage Association has thirty-three auxiliary States, two hundred and forty-nine local and county societies, aggregating thirteen thousand one hundred and fifty members. It is very much to be regretted that a greater effort was not made in some States so that our census might have been more truly representative. The number of application from persons asking information as to the manner of organizing societies has been a hopeful sign. I have in each case given what help I could, but it has made me think more strongly than ever that a constitution for the organization of local societies, in harmony with the State and National American constitutions, should be prepared by this Association. This would simplify the work and relieve the Secretary of much responsibility. Our Association was represented at all of the nominating conventions of the national political parties, viz., the Republican held in Minneapolis, attended by our President, to which a memorial was sent, approved by the Business Committee; the Democratic held in Chicago, also attended by our President, and to which a memorial was presented; the Prohibition convention held in Cincinnati, in which our interests were represented by Miss Frances E. Willard, resulting in securing a plank in the platform demanding political equality for women; the People's party convention held in Omaha, which was attended by both our President and Vice-President-at-Large. Our Vice-President-at-Large, who was in attendance at the convention of the N. W. C. T. U., held in Denver, in November, was appointed fraternal delegate to convey our greetings and express our appreciation of all that society has done for the progress of women. The message was received with enthusiasm, and a telegram of thanks and Godspeed in our work for woman's enfranchisement was returned by the convention to the President of the N. A. W. S. A. It may not be out of the way, in passing, to say that the N. A. W. S. A. did not contribute toward the expenses in any case, but that the representatives to each of these conventions bore their own expenses. Perhaps one of the things of which the Association can be proud is of the work done through its Kansas campaign committee MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 17 committee during the constitutional campaign which was held in that State immediately after our last annual meeting. As this work will be fully set forth in the report for Kansa, a passing notice of it here is all that is necessary. A number of proposed amendments to the constitution were received during the year, and, according to the rerquirements of the constitution, copies were sent to the general officers and published in the suffrage papers. The proposed by-laws were also published, although not required, in order that delegates might be the better prepared to discuss and act upon them. The delay in publishing the program is due to the fact that this work was placed in my hands very late in the year, and I would recomend the appointment of the program committee early in the session, that arrangements with speakers and other necessary work be done in season, before many desirable speakers have made arrangements which preclude the possibility of their presence at the convention. Numerous statements concerning the worm have been sent in duplicate form to many different papers. My attention being repeatedly called to the newspaper statement that the Woman Suffragists of the nation had nominated a President of the United States, I deemed it advisable to make an official statement of the facts in the case. I therefore sent the following Associated Press dispatch: Various articles in the public press indicate a misconception of the work of the Woman Suffragists of the country. A number of newspapers speak of " The Woman Suffrage candidate for the Presidency of the United States. " The national association of workers, the National Woman Suffrage Association, though its work is of a political nature, is not a political party, and has not named any candidate for the Presidency. Rachel Foster Avery, Cor. Sec., N. A. W. S. A. At a business meeting of the National Council of Women, held in Chicago, in December, our President, who is a member of that committee by virtue of our membership in the council, was represented by Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, as proxy, and our delegate on that occasion was Mrs. Mary E. Holmes, president of the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association. Every year we have recommendations for work which are adopted but not carried out. I would suggest that our Committee on Plan of Work see that its recommendations which are adopted are sent to Stated, asking their co-operation, and if approved by the States, from them sent to the local auxiliaries, and to encourage its adoption where advisable. 18 Minutes of the Suffrage Convention I would further recommend that we make some provision for representation at national conventions, by authorizing our President to make such arrangements as she thinks best, and circumstances seem to call for. We do not make enough of these occasions, and often a convention of our own held in the same city would do good work. This suggestion might be carried farther and apply to State associations to gain a hearing for our cause before crowds of people drawn together for other purposes. It is becoming very popular for State and county fairs to have speakers present our cause, and I think that a State can do no better work than to make every effort to induce managers of fairs to invite a woman to speak to them at such times. Very often the State may, with good effect, offer to pay for the speaker the first year, if the management will consent to give a place on the program. But this need not be done more than one year; for in the cases of which I have known, after they once have a woman speaker, it is found to be such an attraction to the fair that the management will willingly pay the speaker the next year. The same is true of all Summer Camps and Chautauquas. At the risk of seeming importunate, may I not urge this matter for the consideration of our auxiliaries, and further say that now is not a day too early to agitate the question for next summer and to write to the managers of these societies? In the fall the resignation of our former Treasurer was received, and, as we were informed that there would be no reconsideration, it was presented to the board of general officers and accepted. The following resolution was sent to Mrs. Spofford by our officers: "Resolved, That we appreciate the long and valuable services rendered by Jane H. Spofford as Treasurer of our Association, and regret the necessity which compels her to resign the position." Harriet Taylor Upton was elected to fill the unexpired term of Treasurer, and May Wright Sewall was elected to fill the unexpired term of Auditor made vacant by Mrs. Upton's acceptance of the Treasurership. If I may be permitted a word upon the general work of the Association for the year, I regard it as one of the most active years of service we have seen. The field work of the President and Vice-President-at-Large, the grand series of conventions held in Kansas, the signs of awakened interest in the South, and the openings which give Minutes of the Suffrage Convention 19 us such splendid opportunities for future efforts -- all these are the result of the work which has had its source in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. It has been a great advantage to our Association that our Vice-President-at-Large had already such extensive connections with the temperance work all over the country, else, perhaps, her official connection with our organization would have cut her off from opportunities now open to her. But a very small proportion of her engagements for public addresses come through any organized development of suffrage sentiment, but on every occasion the audience hears somewhat of the doctrine of equal suffrage. My own conviction is that the need of the hour is organization, that the harvest is ripe and that all it demands is faithfulness to our opportunities. The President appointed the following committees: Committee on Courtesies: Lucy Blount and Mary S. Lockwood Committee on Finance: Ellen B. Dietrick, of Massachusetts; Ella M. S. Marble, District of Columbia; and Harriet May Mills, of New York. The President: Certainly the suffrage papers are doing a good work, and I feel that at our annual conventions here in Washington we hardly give the returns to the newspapers that which we owe to them. I therefore want to appoint a committee that shall stand ready to take any subscriptions offered to it. I think every single State committee here ought to enter into a pledge with themselves and with the editors of the various papers to help to increase the circulation. Take the case of that report from Canal Fulton, where our Vice-President-at-Large went to speak in an ordinary lecture course, and, after speaking, there turned up a dear old soul who went around and got up a subscription list of thirty-four or thirty-six to one of our papers, which happened to be the Woman's Tribune. That one lecture was the cause of sending to thirty-six homes of that town a newspaper advocating our cause. The lecture reached a few people's ears and touched a few people's hearts, but when we think of the thirty-six famileis having a paper advocating this cause coming into their homes constantly we can hardly estimate the value of that lecture. 20 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. The putting of the paper there is a part of our work. When I was on the lecture platform in the good old days there was a paper called The Ballot Box, published at Toledo, Ohio, by Mrs. S.R. Williams. At the close of my lecture I always told the people that my lectures didn't amount to much, but if they would subscribe to the paper and have it go to their homes and to the homes of their neighbors each one of them would be able to do more than I had done. I told them there were two boxes that we wanted to get into-- the ballot-box and the jury-box. In one year I rolled up a subscription list of eight hundred for that paper. That is the kind of work we need to do. If we do that work we sow the seed, and we certainly shall get the result. Now, I would like to see who will volunteer to do this work. After a discussion, into which Miss Howard, Ga., Mrs. Langhorne, Virginia, and Mrs. Murphy, Ohio, entered, the following committee was appointed: On securing subscriptions for the suffrage papers at this Convention: H. Augusta Howard, Orra Langhorne, Cornelia K. Hood, Dr. Mary D. Hussey, Emma P. Harley, Esther F. Boland, and A.H. Thompson, with power to add to their committee. The roll was then called by States and each delegation named its member of Resolution Committee.* Meeting adjourned. * California, Nellie H. Blynn; Connecticut, Sarah E. Brown; District of Columbia, Mary L. Bennett; South Dakota, Alice J. Pickler; Georgia, Miriam Howard DuBose; Florida, Ellen C. Chamberlain; Illinois, Lizzie F. Long; Indiana, Alice Waugh; Kansas, Martha Powell Davis; Kentucky, Dr. Sarah M. Seiwers; Maine, Elizabeth U. Yates; Maryland, Sarah T. Miller; Massachusetts, Ellen B. Dietrick; Massachusetts National, Lavina A. Hatch; Michigan, Olivia B. Hall; Missouri, Virginia L. Minor; Nebraska, Clara Bewick Colby; New Jersey, Jennie D. DeWitt; New York, Emily Howland; Ohio, Rosa L Segur; Pennsylvania, Jane Campbell; Vermont, Eliza S. Eaton. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 21 MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 1893, 2.30 P.M. ----- THE PRESIDENT: Many of the good friends and workers have been taken from us the last year, and it is our earnest wish to devote the following hour to their memories. She then read Elizabeth Cady Stanton's beautiful tribute to George William Curtis, John Greenleaf Whittier, Ernestine L. Rose, Abby Hutchinson Patton: "Resolved, That in the death of George William Curtis, John Greenleaf Whittier, Ernestine L. Rose, Abby Hutchinson Patton, we mourn the loss of one of the most able and eloquent orators and writers of his day; of the poet whose muse sang ever for the freedom of humanity; of the woman who could reason with logic and wisdom; and of the sweet songster whose notes touched more tender chords in the human soul than words could ever reach." In presenting this resolution I would say that, while greeting each other again in health and happiness, full of earnest plans for the future, it is fitting for us to hold this memorial service to express our appreciation for the many noble coadjutors who within the last year have passed beyond the veil to that mysterious realm of human hopes and fears. Let us weave for them immortal wreaths of love and friendship; sweet memories of their gifts and virtues; of their true words and deeds; of all their faithful services in the prolonged struggle for the rights of woman. If the justice of our cause could be measured by the high character of the men who from the beginning have identified themselves with it, woman who would have been emancipated long ago. A reform advocated by Garrison, Phillips, Emerson, Alcott, Theodore Parker, Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. May, and George William Curtis must be worthy the consideration of statesmen and bishops. For more than one generation Mr. Curtis maintained a brave attitude on this question. As editor of Harper's Magazine, and as a popular lecturer on the lyceum platform, he was ever true to his convictions. Before the war his lecture on "Fair Play for Women" aroused much thought among the literary and fashionable classes. In the New York Constitutional Convention, in 1867, in that rather conservative body, Mr. Curtis, though a young man and aware that he had but 22 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. little sympathy among his compeers, bravely demanded that the word "male" should be stricken from Article I, section 2. of the constitution. His speech made on that occasion, in facts, philosophy, rhetoric, and argument, has never been surpassed in the English language. Knowing that he had not the sympathy of his audience, his position was as embarrassing as was that of John Stuart Mill advocating the bill for woman suffrage in the British Parliament the first time he took his seat in the House of Commons. From the beginning of his public life to its close Mr. Curtis was steadfast on this question, Harper's Magazine for June, 1892, contains his last plea for woman and for a higher standard for political parties. When a man of such intellectual ability, moral probity, refined taste and manners advocates political equality for the women at his own fireside, we may be sure that there can be nothing demoralizing in the exercise of the rights he demands for them. Though we shall greet his presence no more in our midst, nor hear his living voice again, yet his words are immortal, and will long gild many a page in American literature, a constant inspiration to coming generations. Mlle. Siismund Potoski, best known to us as Ernestine L. Rose, was born in Poland and belonged to a Jewish family. She was sincere in her faith and conscientious in the observance of all its ceremonies. She was a faithful student of the Scriptures and of the ritual and dogmas of her faith until the persecutions of the Jews in Poland and Russia led her to investigate the theologies of both Jews and Christians and to reject alike their creeds and ceremonies. This involved much suffering- all her life persecuted by Christians as well as those of her own faith. She was liberal alike in religion and government and sympathized with France in her struggle for a Republic and rejoiced in its establishment in in the United States. Traveling extensively on the Continent, by her eloquent appeals to those in authority she relieved many cases of injustice and oppression, bringing peace and happiness to many an humble home. She married in England, where she spent several years, and in 1836 came to America and resided a long time in New York. She lectured extensively in this country on religion, government, and many of the popular reforms, especially on the rights of women. She addressed the legislatures of several States on this question. In company with Paulina Wright she circulated petitions for the property rights of married women in 1836 and presented them in person to the committee that had such matters in charge. Probably this was the seedsowing for the bill which passed in 1848. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 23 During the years of 1855 to 1860 Mrs. Rose traveled with Miss Anthony all over the State of New York, speaking to large audiences in fifty different counties. The result of their united labors was the passage of a bill securing to married women the right to their wages and the guardianship of thie children. For half a century, as a public speaker, her eloquent voice was heard on both continents, she having taken an active part in all the great progressive moments of our day, associated with the most influential classes of reformers in both Europe and America. All through those eventful years Mrs. Rose fought a double battle, not only for the political rights of her sex, but for their religious rights as individual souls, to do their own thinking and believing. How much of the freedom we now enjoy may be due to this noble Polish woman cannot be estimated, for moral influences are too subtle for measurement. They who sat with her in by-gone days on the platform will remember her matchless powers as a speaker, and how safe we all felt when she had the floor that neither in manner, sentiment, argument, nor repartee would she in any way compromise the dignity of the occasion. She had the advantage of rare grace and beauty, which in a measure heightened the effect of all she said. She had a rich, musical voice and a ready flow of choice language. In style she was clear, logical, and at times impassioned. I visited her during her last sad days in London, after the death of her husband, when she was stricken with the disease that terminated her life. She talked with deep feeling of her eventful life and with lively interest in what was still passing, familiar as she was with every step of progress in our movement, both in England and America. "I am happy," she said at parting, "that I have helped to usher in the dawn of a new day for woman, even in the humble capacity of one of the nymphs dancing around the car in Guido's Aurora. Of death and the future life she said nothing. I had often heard her say in former days that of the future she knew nothing, and seldom thought of that subject, as she had always found enough in this life to occupy her time and thoughts. She had no fears of death and passed away calmly, sustained in her last days by the same philosophy that inspired her no-ble, unselfish life. All through our fierce anti slavery conflict there were youthful voices heard that could still the wildest storms. From the White Mountain tops of New Hampshire came the songs of freedom that have echoed round the globe, making the Hutchinson family and our Quaker poet immortal in verse and song. 24 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. To many of Whittier's stirring sentiments these singers gave a new power and significance that the reader had never felt before. He was to them an inspiration, making a rare combination of harmonious influences, alike pleasing to all classes in all attitudes; to the rough pioneer on the far-off prairiess, as well as to the nobility of the Old World in the palaces of kings, for music is the one universal language that speaks to every heart. This band of sweet singers has passed away, one brother only remains now, "Sister Abby's" sweet voice is silenced forever. But she will not be forgotten by the generation that felt the inspiration of her song. The first time I saw "charming little Abby," as she was familiarly called, was on the platform with her four stalwart brothers in old Faneuil Hall. It was in a crowded anti-slavery meeting, presided over by a howling mob. Neither the fiery eloquence of Garrison nor the persuasive, silvery tones of Phillips could command a moment's hearing, but the Hutchinsons' sweet songs of freedom were listened to in breathless silence. The very sentiments of the mob applauded in the songs they would not let the orators in plain English say. Abby, with her youth and beauty and her sweet, unaffected manners, won all hearts. There was a pathos in her voice, high and clear above the deep bass and tenor of her brothers, that brought tears to many eyes. Indeed, their simple ballads, touching all earthly sorrows, and their glad prophecies of the good time coming, moved their audiences alternately to smiles and to tears. The wide-spread influence of the Hutchinson family in the war for freedom cannot be overestimated. One of the books in my library I value most highly in the first volume of Whittier's poems, published in 1838, "Dedicated to Henry B. Stanton, as a token of the author's personal friendship, and of his respect for the unreserved devotion of exalted talents to the cause of humanity and freedom." Soon after our marriage we spent a few days with our gifted Quaker poet on his farm in Massachusetts. I shall never forget those happy days in June; the long walks and drives and talks under the old trees, of anti-slavery experiences, and Whittier's mirth and indignation as we described different scenes in the World's Anti-slavery Convention in London. He laughed immoderately at the Tom Campbell episode. Poor fellow, he had taken too much wine that day, and when Whittier's verses, addressed to the convention, were read he criticised them severely and wound up by saying that the soul of a poet was not in him. Mr. Stanton sprang to his feet and recited some of Whittier's stirring stanzas on freedom, which electrified the audience, and turn- MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 25 ing to Campbell, he said: "What do you say to that?" "Ah! that's real poetry," he replied. "And John Greenleaf Whittier is its author," said Mr. Stanton. I enjoyed, too, the morning and evening worship, when the revered mother read the Scriptures and we all bowed our heads in silent worship. There was at times an atmosphere of solemnity pervading everything that was oppressive in the midst of so much that appealed to my higher nature. There was a shade of sadness in even the smile of the mother and sister, and a rigid plainness in the house and its surroundings, a depressed look in Whittier himself that the songs of the birds, the sunshine and the bracing New England air seemed powerless to chase away, caused, as I afterwards heard, by pecuniary embarrass-ment and fears in regard to the delicate health of the sister. She, too, had rare poetical talent, and in her Whittier found not only a helpful companion in the practical affairs of life, but one who sympathized with him in the highest flights of which his muse was capable. Their worst fears were realized in the death of the sister not long after. In his last volume several of her poems were published, which are quite worthy the place the brother's appreciation has given them. Whittier's love and reverence for this mother and sister, so marked in every word and look. was a charming feature of his home life. All his poems to our sex breathe the same tender, worshipful sentiments for womanhood. Soon after this visit at Amesbury, our noble friend spent a few days with us in Chelsea, near Boston. One evening, after we had been talking a long time of the unhappy dissensions among anti-slavery friends, by way of dissipating the shadows I opened the piano and proposed that we should sing some cheerful songs. "Oh, no!" exclaimed Mr. Stanton, "do not touch a note; you will make every nerve of Whittier's body and soul tremble like an aspen leaf." It seemed to me so natural for a poet to love music that I was surprised to know that it was a torture to him. From our upper piazza we had a fine view of Boston harbor by moonlight. Sitting there late one night admiring the outlines of Bunker Hill Monument and the weird effect of the sails and masts of the vessels lying there, we naturally passed from the romance of our surroundings to those of our lives. I have often noticed that the most reserved people are apt to grow confidential at that hour. It was under such circumstances that the good poet opened to me a deeply interesting page of his life, a sad romance of love and dis-appointment, that may not yet be told, as some who were in-terested in the events are still among the living. Whittier's 26 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. poems were not only one of the most important factors in the anti-slavery war and victory, but they have been equally potent in emancipating the minds of his generation from the gloomy superstitions of the Puritanical religion. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his eulogy of Whittier, says that his influence on the religious thought of the American people has been far greater than that of the occupant of any pulpit. We belong to the same church without a bishop, which seems the natural complement of "a State without a king." In Whittier's own words to another to him we say: Peace be with thee, oh! our brother, In the spirit land! Vainly look we for another In thy place to stand: Unto truth and freedom giving All thy earthly powers, Be thy virtues with the living, And thy spirit ours. If the spirit ever gazes From its journeyings, back; If the immortal ever traces O'er its mortal track, Will thou not, oh! brother, meet us Sometimes on our way, And in hours of sadness greet us As a spirit may? Hon. A.G. RIDDLE, a life-long advocate of suffrage, was then introduced and said: MADAME PRESIDENT AND LADIES OF THE CONVENTION: I have prepared at the suggestion of Miss Anthony at the latest hour a resolution commemorative of the death of Mr. Francis Minor and also one for General Butler, and I suppose I shall be pardoned with reading these and commenting very briefly. As suffragists we esteem and honor men for the services rendered by them in the cause we are convened to advance, and we recognize Francis Minor, late of Missouri, as holding a high place with the ablest and most valued men and women who have advocated it. He was the first to formulate the doctrine that the fourth amendment of the Constitution invested women with the elective franchise, which he did at the suffrage convention at St. Louis, October, 1869, presided over by his distinguished wife, Virginia L. Minor. He also instituted and with marked ability conducted a suit in the name of his wife and himself to vindicate the rights of said Virginia L. under said amendment until its MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 27 final adverse conclusion in the Supreme Court of the United States (Wall. Reps., 21, p. 162) and rendered other valuable services to the cause: "Resolved, That the members of this convention individually have heard of the passing away of Francis Minor with pain and profound regret ; that this convention fully appreciates his eminent services in the cause to advance which it is convened. It deplores his loss from its ranks of advocates ; it personally sympathizes with his widow and the circle of mourning friends and with all who deplore the loss of a good man. The convention orders that an attested copy of this resolution be placed in the hands of Mrs. Virginia L. Minor with the assurances of its entire sympathy with her in her great bereavement." I cannot speak from much personal acquaintance with Mr. Minor. I met him once or twice in this city, when he was here preparing for the final hearing of a very important case which he conducted. I first learned of him from a set of resolutions that he offered in 1869 before the State Suffrage Convention at St. Louis, over which his very distinguished wife presided. Those resolutions were the first exegesis of the Fourteenth Amendment, and set forth the law as it is, and as it sometime will be declared to be when there is a just appreciation and a proper education, with sufficient nerve and energy in the courts to declare what is the law. I believe it has been intimated that at some future time I shall be asked to express more fully than I shall now attempt to do, the true construction of that fourteenth amendment, which makes citizens of men and women alike. [Applause.] A man and a woman is one thing, or rather, they are two things, but a citizen is totally another character. One is such as he comes from the hands of nature, from the hand of the Maker; the other is such as artificial society makes him, and every definition that can be found of "citizen" describes him as being fully in possession of all the political rights and franchises known to the State or Union of which they are citizens. That amendment, as you know, declares that all persons-- not simply males--born or naturalized are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Those who are denied or are refused the right to exercise the privileges and franchises of citizenship are not citizens, they are less than citizens. Those that declare that women may not vote simply write "falsehood" across that glorious declaration. Mr. Minor was the first to urge that true yet sublime construction of that grand and noble amendment born of the war. 28 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Later he brought a suit in a circuit court of Missouri in the name of his wife and in his own name to test the truth of his construction of the amendment. She applied for registration and was denied the right to vote. The distinguished Judge Crumm and Senator John B. Henderson were assigned with him, rather as show or lay associates, but his arguments did not meet with the proper appreciation in the courts. He brought the case to the Supreme Court of the United States and argued it there himself, with exactly the result that I supposed would await him--the result which I antici-pated when I was conducting similar cases--and withdrew from the court because because I did not care to have a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States against me on that question. Mr. Minor was perhaps braver than I. He argued his case and got a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court against him. I confess I was surprised, for I supposed that Justice Miller, at least, would have been with him. These were the leading services of Mr. Minor. He has passed away within the last twelve months, which has gar-nered so many great men who were advocates of this great cause. I will now read another resolution I have prepared : In the advanced ranks of the advocates of woman suffrage this convention recognizes the late Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, as occupying a prominent place. As a Representative from Massachusetts in the Forty-first Congress he occupied a very conspicuous place and had large influence. As a leading member of the House Judiciary Com-mittee he took part in the hearing of the "Woodhull Me-morial," asserting the right of women to vote under the fourth amendment, and united with the Hon. Wm. Loughridge, of Iowa, in a minority report sustaining that view. Later he presented a memorial to the House, asking the passage of a bill declaring that the fourth amendment in-vested women with the elective franchise and sustained the same with his usual marked ability and rendered much other service to the cause. Resolved , That the recent and sudden demise of General Butler was a great shock to each and all the members of this body ; that the convention profoundly deplores his passage from the living, and deeply laments his loss from the sup-porters of the cause it labors to advance. It tenders its profoundest sympathy to his daughters and the wide circle who mourns his departure. The convention orders that its officers forward to Mrs. Blanch Ames copies of this resolution duly attested. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 29 Now a single word of this gentleman, with whom I had a very considerable personal acquaintance. He was a remark-able, unique, and exceptional figure in American politics, war, history, and social life. A man marked, set apart by his peculiarities alike, physical, personal, and mental. We all know the part he played in history, and I am not here to speak of it. I am here to speak of him in connec-tion with this cause. When he became a member of the House he was a leading member placed upon the House Judi-ciary Commitee, a committee charged with the duty of pass-ing on all questions of law that arise in that body. There was a hearing in that commitee room in January, 1871, upon what was called the "Woodhull Memorial." It was a me-morial that forulated exactly the doctrines of Mr. Butler, with Judge Loughridge, of Iowa, united in making a minority, report sustaining Mr. Minor's proposition. It was exhaustive, it was satisfactory, it was criticised, it was never replied to, and it can never be. [Applause.] Of course the House was not prepared to adopt it. Immediately following that he pre-sented a memorial asking for an act declaratory of the present law. Occasionally there arises some contrariety of opinion about what a given rule of law is or should be, and the legis-lature of the State or the Congress of the United States passes an act declaratory of what the law is. So Mr. Butler asked Congress to pass an act declaring that the fourteenth amend-ment did invest the women of the United States with the right of suffrage. He made a short and pungent speech in its favor. One of his leading characteristics was pungency, and plenty of it. Of course the bill failed, and Mr. Butler passed to other duties. But as we are suffragists, and as we rank men and women for the labors they have performed in the service of this cause, it is of that service as perfored by Mr. Minor and Mr. Butler that I am more particularly to speak. I am disposed to congratulate you that these distin-guished citizens were suffragists ; and we have a right, and it is our privilege and our duty to commemorate their services to this great cause. I feel that when great and distinguished men like these die in the ranks of this cause, their deaths have sanctioned and dedicated it over and anew to the great principles for which they contend. I knew many of those of whom Mrs. Stanton spoke. The Henry B. STanton mentioned was the husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I knew him in his early prime very well. I see this venerable gentleman over there (pointing to Fred-erick Douglass) - I am not going to eulogize him, the time 30 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. for memorial services for him has not come and will not come in my time. As I was sating, I knew some of these others about whom you speak. I saw Ernestine L. Rose, that magnificent Polish woman. There is no race under the sun that scarcely equals in modern times that magnificent Polish race, the flower and the crown of the Slavs, and she was one of the grandest. She was almost the first woman orator that I ever heard. I knew women could speak in private, and very emphatically, for I had heard them. I knew the Hutchinson family, Judson and Abby, and all the rest of that singing family of brothers and sisters. I knew Whittier, without much acquaintance with him: I had met him and we all had heard his songs. Once in those dismal times of the autumn and winter of 1861, when we had been defeated in the dew battles that were fought, when we had be whipped all about here, I was there when they ran away from the first Bull Run. I refused to run, though. Judson went around among those camps singing Whittier's songs, and a West Point General had him drummed out of the camp. He was disturbing the institutions of Virginia. But Mr. Lincoln countermanded that order, and told him to sing when and where he pleased. Oh! what a world there is in this thing of poetry, what a mission for these poets. They come and we do not recognize them. They sing and go, they sow their little seed and retire. As an unknown poet has sing: "Of all a poet's words, one simple song Teaches men's hearts, assuages wrong; Of all seed sown the earth along, One germinates a tree of life." The PRESIDENT: The good of this hour is that it brings to the knowledge of the young the works of the pioneers who have passed away. It is a remarkable thing to those standing, as I do, one of a generation that is passing on, that all these young people know nothing of the past; they seem to think they have sprung up like somebody's gourd, and that nothing ever was done until they came. So I am always gratified to hear these reminiscences, that these young people may know that others have sown and they are reaping to-day. One of the earliest advocates of this cause was Sally Holly, the daughter of Myron Holly, the founder of the Liberty Party in the State of New York, and also the founder of Unitarianism in the city of Rochester. Frederick Douglass will say a few words in regard to Sally Holly, and of such of the others as he may feel moved to speak; and I want to say MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 31 that when, at the very first convention called by women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton read her resolution, saying that the elective franchise is the underlying right, there was but one man to stand with her, and that man was Frederick Douglass. [Applause.] Mr. DOUGLASS: MADAME CHAIRMAN AND LADIES: I have had many introductions to public assemblies in my life, but I have had none at any time with which I am better pleased than the one now given me to this audience. I look upon that one circumstance of my life to which you have referred as one of the brightest and one that I shall remember with the greatest satisfaction, because I had not merely the courage- that I always have- but that I had the conviction, the intelligence, and the foresight to array myself at that early date, forty years ago, on the side of woman's right to vote. [Applause.] I am asked to say a few words- it shall only be a dew words- in respect to some of the names of the persons who have passed away and of whom we have heard. Especially am I called upon to say a word in respect to Sally Holly. I remember the first time I saw Sally Holly. It was under peculiar circumstances. It was fifty years ago. I was sent by the New England Anti-Slavery Association, in company with George Bradburn, James Monroe, now Professor Monroe, of Oberlin; Sidney Howard Fay, since editor of the New York Evening Post, and William A. White, a brother of the first wife of James Russell Lowell, to hold one hundred anti-slavery conventions, covering five or six States, beginning in New Hampshire, going through Vermont, passing into New York and then into Ohio and Indiana. I was called upon to speak in one of these conventions in the city of Buffalo, where Sally Holly lived. I found myself in a city, like all the cities of the North at that time, opposed to the anti-slavery agitation. Every house, every school-house, every church, every public hall in the city was closed against us but an old store on one of the lower streets. It had lost the hinges from its doors, and I asked permission to go into that old store and begin to tell my story- to talk on the subject of slavery. I was permitted to go there. There was a number of draymen and cartmen and other laborers on the sidewalk, and I began to make my speech. I ought to say that in company with us was Mr. George Bradburn, a pungent speaker, and somewhat witty withal, one of the most exceptional gentlemen, quite elegant in his attire as anti-slavery men at that time went. He came and looked into this place- this hole in 32 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. the wall. He was a little deaf ; quite a good deal so. I asked him if he would speak. "Mr. Bradburn, will you not speak to these five or six colored draymen and others that have come in?" "What did you say?" "Won't you address this assembly?" "No, I will not. I will not speak to such a contemptible array of ragamuffins," and away he went and left me. I began to tell these people what I knew about s[?]avery. I went on from day to day speaking in that old store to laborers from the wharves, cartmen, draymen, and 'longshoremen, until, after awhile, the rooms were crowded. No lady had made her appearance at the meeting, but day after day for six days in succession I spoke--morning, afternoon, and evening--until the house became crowded with those common people. On the third day there came into the room a lady, leading a little girl. No greater contrast could possibly have been presented than this elegantly dressed, refined, magnificent, and beautiful woman attempting to wend her way through that crowd. I don't know that she showed the least shrinking from the crowd, but I noticed that the crowd rather shrank from her, as if fearful that the dust of their garments would soil hers. Her presence to me at that moment was as if an angel had been sent from Heaven to encourage me in my anti-slavery endeavors. She came day after day thereafter, and at last I had the temerity to ask her name. She gave her name --Sally Holly. "A daughter of Myron Holly?" said I. "Yes," said she. I knew it all then, for Myron Holly was among the foremost of the men in western New York in the anti-slavery movement. His home was in Rochester, and his dust now lies in Mt. Hope, the beautiful cemetery of that city. Over him is a monument, placed there by that other true friend of women, Garrett Smith, of Peterboro. Mr. RIDDLE: What year was that you were in Rochester? It was in 1843, and this is 1893. Fifty years ago. I want to say one word of the Hutchinson family. I knew that family when they were fourteen in number. I was at their house in Milford on one occasion that I shall never forget. The Hutchinson boys and the Hutchinson girls, while all of them were grown up, retained a great deal of the child spirit, and they sometimes had little spats among themselves. One wanted a thing and the other wanted it ; one said, "You shan't have it," another said, "I will have it," and they often got into little skirmishes of this sort. Whenever they got into that condition the old man, Jesse Hutchinson, would say, "Let us worship God," and bring MINUTES OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 33 out his Bible and read a chapter, and they were all stilled, and began to sing. "Old Hundred" was the favorite. All the chaffing, all the confusion, all the altercations would instantly cease, and then those fourteen voices would unite, and for about five minutes it did seem to me that heaven had come down to earth, or as if the roof was going off on the wings of melody. I never heard anything like it. I have seen the Hutchinson family in a mob in New York. When Mr. Garretson, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Burleigh, when no one else could speak, when there was a perfect tempest and whirlwind of rowdyism in the old Tabernacle on Broadway, then this family would sing, and almost upon the instant that they would raise their voices, so perfect was the music, so sweet the concord, so enchanting the melody, that it came down upon the audience like a summer's thunder-shower on a dusty road, subduing, settling everything. I can not add anything to the paper which Mrs. Stanton has sent. After her, silence. Your cause has raised up no voice so potent as that of Elizabeth Cady Stanton--no living voice except yours, Mrs. President. How delighted I am to see that you have the image of Lucretia Mott here [referring to her statue on the stage]. I am glad to be here, glad to be counted on your side, and glad to be able to remember and to feel that those who have gone before are my friends. I was not present, as I desired to be, at the funeral of Whittier. I was more indebted to that man perhaps than to any other of the anti-slavery people. He did more to fire my soul and to enable me to fire the souls of others than any other man. His "Stanzas for the Time," in the volume dedicated to Henry B. Stanton, was full of anti-slavery fire. His utterances and those of John Pierrepont filled the North and East with anti-slavery fervor as almost no other instrumentality employed in that cause. Nathaniel P. Rogers, who edited the Herald of Freedom, had in that paper a "Poet's Corner." He often called upon Whittier: "We want you. We can do without you, for we have done without you before. But we want you in the poet's corner. You out to be in the blue sky, or rather in the stormy sky, for we have no blue over us, letting down fiery shots to inflame our anti-slavery party." It was Whittier and Pierrepont that feathered our arrows, shot in the direction of the slave power, and they did it well. No better reading can now be had in favor of the rights of women or in favor of the liberties of man than is to be found in their utterances. My friends, I thank you for hearing me thus far. [Applause.] 3WC 34 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION CLARA BARTON : MADAME PRESIDENT AND FRIENDS : Harriet Austin was one of those on whom nature bestowed its gifts with an unsparing hand. Physically, as well as mentally, morally, as well as more skillfully, her being was full, rounded, complete. A more perfect blending of shrinking modesty, and unshrinking moral courage few persons have been privileged to possess. A central or northern New York girl, one of a large family, doubtless mainly dependent upon her own energies, she was one of the first to essay the roll of "the woman doctor" and fitted herself with such knowledge as she could obtain at that early day, for the overcoming of disease by water treatment. This brought her into relations with Dr. James C. Jackson, who was then the head of a so-named "water cure" establishment at Glen Haven. At the request of himself and family, Miss Austin joined her practice, and finally her fortunes with theirs. Later an unfortunate fire swept their "cure" and every cent of property from the doctor and his family. Miss Austin had a little money of her own acquirement which she nobly volunteered as a first payment and bargain-binder of the old "institute" at Dansville, known thirty-five years ago as the Austin and Jackson Water Cure, later as the great "Dansville Sanitarium." Here the work of her life really commenced. The weight of responsibility in helping to purchase a property, and build up an establishment in the face of such opposition as met the pioneers in progressive work thirty-five years ago would either break or make. Under such efforts the weak perish; the heroic learn how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong. Who learned that better than Harriet Austin? Dr. Jackson was a thorough believer in and ardent advocate of so-called "woman's rights" from the first movement. As a medical man he was one of the first to advocate, on behalf of suffering womanhood, the needed reform of dress. Miss Austin adopted the Bloomer costume previous to meeting Dr. Jackson, and together they decided it should constitute a part of their life effort to advocate and teach this reform, among others which should come to them. There must be many here who remember Harriet Austin, her easy natural dress; the rich brown ringlets flooding her shoulders; and the full honest eye that seemed to look into your very soul; the measured, gentle speech; and the tender tone that went to the heart of every suffering creature. Did all these save her? Alas, no. The boys followed her in the streets and shouted; men stared at her. The good dames MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 35 gathered in their darkened parlors and said: "Shame, the doings of this person." The Turkish pantalet that rested on the instep of her neatly fitting boot came six inches--ay, possible eight, below the hem of her pretty gathered skirt. Indeed, "She must be very bad." The heads wagged and the tongues wagged as well. What a disgrace to womanhood. How was it to be tolerated? Divided skirts? Does any one not think, that these were not hard years for Harriet Austin, but there was a principle at stake for her. She believed in the example she was giving, and had the courage of her convictions. The "Home on the Hillside" went on. The sick came and were comforted, healed and taught. The eloquent doctor thundered his truths from the platform of "Liberty Hall." Harriet Austin published her "Laws of Life," and went on in her beautiful, forgiving, queenly way. Maturity settled on the brow of the one, and age on the other. But the people had commenced to believe; and when, after twenty years, the flames again swept their decks in an hour at midnight, with three hundred patients to be rescued, every house was opened, every conveyance brought, and two o'clock found all patients safely removed by neighborly hands to the best beds and chambers in the town, and when a few months later the new palatial structure went up on the ruins of the old, the great Dansville Sanitarium of to-day, with its half million worth and the best people in the land, as now gathered in it for skillful treatment and unequalled care, well might the aging doctor and his faithful helper feel that younger hands should take the helm. A rich interest had it yielded for Harriet Austin's one or two hundred hard-earned dollars. The brave old doctor still lives, and his pen still proclaims the rights of all women, the freedom of mankind, and love of God. But Harriet Austin! Let us glance at a clear crowned little rise on "East Hill" above the streets where her young feet used to tread. A glistening white marble shaft, with "Jackson" on the one side and "Austin" on the other, has stood there for years. Look at the gathering of the best of that goodly old Genesee Valley town. The best that Dansville has to offer, prayerfully and tearfully they wait. The heads are bowed and the hearts are still, and as loving hands give back "dust to dust" each knows a personal offering has been made which can never be replaced. The mourners turn sorrowfully away and the sunlight gleams athwart the marble shaft, not whiter nor purer than the soul of her who rests beneath. 36 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. H.B. BLACKWELL, Mass. : Mr. Whiting was a man of deeds, and not of words. He was one of the most earnest advocates of woman suffrage in Massachusetts. In early life he was poor, but possessed of fine business qualities, full of enthusiasm and with unusual intellectual capacity. When he became rich, his interest in reforms did not cease. He was a power and strength to the Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts. He would postpone any business engagement, no matter how important, to give them aid; he was always ready to draw a check when asked. He was one of those rare men who are not made smaller by wealth, and was always willing to give himself, his mind, his heart, his money to help the cause of woman. [Applause.] MRS. WARNER, Neb. : Jennie F. Holmes, of Tecumseh, Neb., was a woman who impressed every one with the beauty of her character, and rendered a great service to the cause of woman by her whole life and thought. In her passing away during the last year the cause of suffrage and the cause of temperance have suffered a great loss. THE PRESIDENT : In what we call the Nebraska campaign of 1882, no two women gave greater aid to the movement than did Mrs. Holmes and her sister, Mrs. Russell. REV. ANNA HOWARD SHAW : I have been asked to speak a word of Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson. It has been said by some people that we have wrongfully voted Mr. Emerson as being on our side. Mr. Emerson's biographers appear to have put in his early statements and have forgotten to put in the later statements, which were all in favor of the enfranchisement of women. I was once sent to the city of Concord by the Society of the State of Massachusetts to hold a meeting there. The churches were closed against suffrage speakers and there was not money enough to pay for a hall. Mrs. Ralph Waldo Emerson heard the meeting was to be given up, and she sent to the lady having the work in charge, saying, "Shall it be said that here in Concord, where the Revolutionary war began, that the time has come when there is no place open to speak of the freedom of women? Get the best hall in Concord and I will pay for it." So on that occasion and on another occasion while I was working for the Massachusetts society Mrs. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 37 Ralph Waldo Emerson paid for the hall and sent a kind word to the meeting, delaring herself in favor of the freedom of women, and stating that her husband's views and her own were identical on this question. She had the New England trait of being a good wife, a good mother, and a good housekeeper, and Mr. Emerson's home was a restful and blessed place. We sometimes forget the wives of great men in thinking of the greatness of their husbands, but Mrs. Emerson was as great in her way as Mr. Emerson in his, and no more faithful friend to woman and to woman's advancement has ever lived among us than Mrs. Emerson. I was not personally acquainted with her save as I met her in Concord during one of my visits there, but I knew her from people who were well informed as to her life. She was a devoted friend to woman's progress everywhere. A word as to Miss Oliver. While the liberal churches opened their theological schools--some of them--to women, orthodox theological schools were not open to women, and Miss Oliver undertook to open the doors of some of the theological schools of the orthodox churches. In the year 1873 she wrote to many of the theological schools asking admission, and finally Boston University granted her request and admitted Miss Oliver as one of the regular students in her class, which graduated in the year 1876. She graduated the year after I entered the theological school. She was the first woman to enter Boston University theological department. She was much beloved by her class. She was a devoted Christian, eminently orthodox, and a very good worker in all lines of religious work. After Miss Oliver graduated she was ambitious to become ordained, as all women ought to be who desire to preach the Gospel; and so after I had graduated from the theological school, being the year following Miss Oliver, we both applied for admission to the conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as ministers. Miss Oliver's name beginning with O and mine with S, her claims were presented first. She was denied ordination by Bishop Andrews. Miss Oliver's claims and mine were carried up to the general conference in Cincinnati, and the Methodist Episcopal Church denied ordination to women whom it had graduated in its schools and upon whom it had conferred the degree of bachelor of divinity. It not only did this, but it took a step backward; it took from us the licenses which had been granted to myself for eight years and to Miss Oliver for four years. But Miss Oliver was earnest in her efforts, and so she began to preach in the city of Brooklyn, and with great courage brought a church in which a man had failed as a 38 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. minister, and with a debt of $14,000. But Miss Oliver was like a great many other women--and here is a warning for all young women--God made a woman equal to a man, but He did not make a woman equal to a woman and a man. So, when we undertake to do work we usually try to do the work of a man and to do the work of a woman too; then we break down, and they say that women ought not to be ministers because they are not strong enough. In the first place, they do not get churches that can afford to send them to Europe on a six months' vacation once a year. Miss Oliver did not have that kind of a chance. She had the duties of a pastor's wife--Miss Oliver was not only the minister and the minister's wife, but she started at least a dozen other reforms and undertook to carry them all out. There was dress reform and nurses for the sick and suffering women, and I cannot tell you all the things she undertook to do. So her health failed, and she was attacked by the great Methodist paper, for Rev. Dr. Buckley declared that he would destroy her influence in the church, and so with that great organ behind him he attacked her. She had that great organ to fight, the great church to fight, and the world to fight, and the devil to fight, and she broke down in health. She went abroad to recover her health, and did in a measure recover, but came home only to die. She was an artist; and while abroad she pursued her favorite employment, and she has left some pictures of no mean merit. She was a genuine reformer; she had the courage of her convictions; she had faith in God and faith in humanity, and believed that the time would come when there would be no distinction between men and women anywhere, but that where there was work to do she could go, and go freely. I believe that those who have done their work faithfully and gone before, but who have not seen the reward, will know when the hour of our triumph comes, and shall be happy with those who gather the fruits of the harvest. I rejoice to see the faces of young women here, new young women, who come here with so much hope and enthusiasm. and while we look forward to the victory, which is not so far distant, let us be loyal to each other; let us love one another as did these old people who cannot even mention the names of the dead without tears in their eyes and a trembling in the voice; let us stand loyally side by side, so that when we shall have passed away, those we leave behind us shall be able to say: "She was faithful to the cause, and she triumphed in its faith." MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 39 MRS. BROWNE, Conn. : Mrs. Sarah Gilman Young, of Hartford, who has passed into the beyond during the last year, was a most earnest worker for woman suffrage. She was a writer of high merit, a great traveler, having, with her son, spent thirteen years abroad, closely observing all modes of life, taking up vigorously and using both tongue and pen for any movement toward reforms, and the betterment of the world. She was a valued member of our Hartford Equal Rights Club, making many suggestions which caused us to defer to and highly respect her judgment, and we deeply deplore her loss and miss her presence. In connection with her was always associated her son, Prof. B. Howard Young, so well known as an ardent suffragist, he being an invalid, and having spent the last nine years confined to his bed. But while his body is in bondage, his mind and will are active and always turned in the direction of progress. He writes for different journals both here and abroad, and does a great and good work for humanity. Yet woman suffrage is in his opinion at the bottom of all reforms, and he is most earnest in advocating and pushing it everywhere. The value of his efforts for our cause can hardly be measured. He says: "The idea strikes me and the work strikes you" (the club). He and his mother were urged to take the editing and management of one of the most prominent woman suffrage papers in Europe, by circumstances prevented. The good wishes and hearty thanks of all women should go out to him, helping him to health and freedom to do all he desires for our and every good work. In closing the hour's thoughts of the dear friends gone before, Miss Anthony made loving mention of Charlotte F. Joy Mann, one of the most earnest and generous of the pioneers; Jonathan Allen, for a half century president of Alfred University, where young women have had equal chances with young men; Priscilla Holmes Drake, for a score of years our national vice-president for the State of Alabama; Edward Eldridge, the honored president of the Washington State Suffrage Association; Elizabeth Wadsworth Anthony, the lover and financial helper of our cause to the ripe age of four-score; Isabella Heden- 40 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. berg, whose genial face and generous hand we miss here to-day for the first time in many years; and she said: I am just informed that we must add to this list the revered name of Abby Hopper Gibbons, of four-score-and-ten years, who has stood for more than the allotted years of man the sentinel on the watch-tower to guard unfortunate women and help them back into womanly living. MISS ANTHONY : The Memorial Service is now closed, and the first business in order will be the consideration of proposed amendments to the constitution. The first amendment, proposed by Harriet T. Upton, Ohio, to amend Article IV, section 4, so as to read: The officers enumerated in the preceding sections of this article, together with the chairmen of standing committees, shall constitute the Executive Committee of this association. Of these officers, fifteen shall constitute a quorum to do business. MRS. UPTON : I am asked to state my reason for proposing this amendment. The chairmen of the committees are, or should be, so thoroughly conversant with their work as to have many valuable suggestions and experiences to present to the Executive Committee. These two parties stand exactly as two persons making a contract, and should be so situated as to consult each other and perfectly understand each other, which they can not do unless both are members of one body. I know from experience that committees, and consequently the association, are crippled if the chairman has not authority from the Executive Committee, and the Executive Committee, under the present rule, does not understand the work of the committees as it should. The amendment was adopted without discussion. The following amendments offered by ALICE STONE BLACKWELL were read and adopted without discussion : To amend Article IV, sec. 6, so as to read : The Executive Committee may elect annually ten or more honorary vice- presidents. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 41 To amend Article V so as to read: This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote at any annual meeting, notice of the proposed amendment having been given to the Business Committee and by them published in the suffrage papers not less than three months in advance. The amendment proposed by ALICE STONE BLACKWELL to amend Article IV, sec. 1, was by her withdrawn. The next business in order was the consideration of the proposed amendments to the By-laws. The first, second, and third amendments to the By-laws I, which is as follows: For the accomplishment of the object specified in Article II of its Constitution this Association shall seek to concentrate the efforts of all the advocates of woman suffrage in the United States by the following : (1) It shall hold annually in Washington one meeting of delegates (according to the basis of representation stated in By-law II) for the transaction of business, the election of officers, and the advocacy of its principles; and it may hold one or more conventions annually for the advocacy of its principles, etc. PROPOSED AMENDMENTS First amendment offered by LAURA MOORE, Vt. : To amend By-law I, so as to read : For the accomplishment of the object specified in Article II of its Constitution this Association shall seek to concentrate the efforts of all the advocates of woman suffrage in the United States by these methods : (1) It shall hold annually one meeting of delegates (according to the basis of representation in By-law II) for the transaction of business, the election of officers, and the advocacy of its principles ; and it may hold one or more conventions for the advocacy of its principles. (2) It shall hold annually in Washington, D.C., a convention for the advocacy of its principles. (The rest of the by-law to read as before.) Or (2) shall read : It shall hold in Washington, D.C., a convention for the advocacy of its principles. The second by RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Pa. : To amend By-law I, so as to read: For the accomplishment of the object specified in Article II of its Constitution, this Association shall seek to concentrate the efforts of all the advocates of woman suffrage in the United States by the fol- 42 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. following methods: (1) It shall hold annually one meeting of delegates (according to the basis of representation stated in By-law II,) for the transaction of business, the election of officers and the advocacy of its principles; and it may hold one or more other conventions annually for the advocacy of its principles. (2) In order to influence National legislation, the annual meeting of delegates shall be held in Washington, D.C., during the first session of each Congress. (The rest of the law to read as before.) The third by CLAUDIA QUIGLEY MURPHY : To amend By-law I, so as to read: For the accomplishment of the object specified in Article II of its Constitution, this Association shall seek to concentrate the efforts of all advocates of equal suffrage in the United States by the following methods: (1) It shall hold one annual meeting wherever the Executive Committee shall determine (according to the basis stated in By-law II,) for the transaction of business, the election of officers, and the advocacy of its principles; and it may hold one or more conventions annually for the advocacy of its principles. (The rest of the By-law to read as before.) Mrs. UPTON, Ohio : I move that each delegate be allowed to speak but once and that three minutes be the time allowed for each speech. This motion, by vote of the Convention, was adopted. Mrs. TINDALL, D.C. : I move that the first of the three amendments be adopted. Mrs. DIETRICK, Mass. : I move that we take up the third amendment. The point, as I understand it, is whether the annual meeting shall be held in Washington or whether it may be held wherever the Executive Committee may determine, and Mrs. Murphy's amendment is the only one that puts that point clearly and unequivocally. Mrs. Moore's amendment seems to be a reaffirmation of the Constitution as it now is. Mrs. AVERY, Pa. : It seems to me that Mrs. Moore's resolution is not simply a reaffirmation of the present Constitution. The difference is that the convention to be held in Washington is one for the advocacy of the principles of the Association and not a delegate meeting. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 43 Mrs. DIETRICK, Mass. : I think Mrs. Murphy's amendment makes that very clear, while Mrs. Moore's does not. Mrs. AVERY, Pa. : Mrs. Murphy's amendment does not provide for holding any meetings in Washington, whereas the first proposed amendment does. It makes the holding of one annual meeting in Washington a necessity. Mr. BLACKWELL, Mass. : I move that we substitute Mrs. Murphy's amendment for the other. This motion, being duly seconded and submitted to the Convention, was adopted. Mrs. DE WITT, N. J. : Will some one please state the difference between these two proposed amendments. Rev. ANNA SHAW : The difference between the two is that the amendment proposed by Mrs. Moore provides for a convention to be held in the city of Washington annually for the advocacy of our principles, while the convention for the election of officers of the society may be held at any other point in the United States. The amendment proposed by Mrs. Murphy is that the convention for the election of officers may be held anywhere, and does not provide for any convention to be held in the city of Washington. One provides for a convention in the city of Washington and one does not. The convention to be held in Washington is merely a mass meeting and not a delegate convention. Mrs. DEITRICK, Mass. : That seems not quite a fair statement of the case. Mrs. Murphy's amendment provides that one annual meeting shall be held wherever it may be determined by the Executive Committee; they may determine to hold that convention every year in Washington. There is nothing in the amendment to prevent the meeting being held in Washington. 44 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mrs. DEWITT, N. J. : Do I understand that there will be at any rate a convention in Washington, and that the convention for the election of officers is the one to be left for the Executive Committee to select? Mrs. DEITRICK, Mass. : It seems very clear to me that this leaves perfect liberty to decide each year where the annual convention shall be held. There is nothing in Mrs. Murphy's amendment that precludes the Executive Committee from having it in Washington but Mrs. Murphy's amendment gives the Executive Committee some choice. Mrs. SEGUR, Ohio : I object to putting so much power in the hands of the Exexutive Committee. Mrs. MURPHY, Ohio : I would like to say a word in explanation of that amendment. It seems better to sow the seed of suffrage around through the country by means of our National Conventions. You may give them mass-meetings, and district conventions, and State conventions, and various other things, but you can never give them anything as good as the National Convention. We must get down to the unit of our civilization, and the unit of our civilization is the individual voter or person. We have worked for twenty-five years here among the legislators at Washington ; we have lobbied in the legislatures, and we have found the average legislator to be but a reflex of the sentiment of his constituents. I have offered this amendment so that we may go around through the States and get down to the people. If we wish representation at Washington we can send our delegation to the halls of Congress to-day and next year, the same as we have done in the past. This great convention does not go to Congress ; it sends a committee to Congress. So I ask that this matter may be placed in the hands of the Executive Committee to decide what place is best. I can speak for some of the women in Michigan and Ohio who cannot take the time and have not the money to come to these gatherings. It costs the women of Ohio and Indiana and Illinois at least a hundred dollars to come here. The women of these States are not wealthy women, and a hundred dollars MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 45 dollars is not easily picked up. If the Conventions were held in Toledo or some central city instead of seventy-five or a hundred delegates we would have two or three or four hundred. We have at our State conventions in Ohio almost as many people as we have here. Let us get down to the people and sow the seed among them. It is the people we want to reach if we expect good results. Mrs. SOUTHWORTH, Ohio : By moving our conventions it seems to me we would lose the experience which the leaders have had it getting up conventions. Talk about a convention in Ohio! I have not the slightest faith that we could hold a National Convention there with over fifty or seventy-five members, and all the expenses and the experience would be wanting. Mrs. AVERY, Pa. : I want to speak a word from the side of organization. When we try to organize the Western States they naturally say, "Show the particular advantage to us of working with the National Association." We hold the conventions in the eastern part of the country, here at the National Capital. We do it for the purpose of bringing all the influence possible on the national legislators. But the convention should be as large a delegate body as possible, and it seems to me, for the advantage of the possibilities in the years to come, the convention should be migratory--should be placed where the largest number of people can reach it easily. It would be perfectly fair to ask the Eastern women to go as far west as the Western women have come east and still we could keep the places of holding the conventions somewhat central. I would put in the power of all to attend some of these meetings. I think it would be well to place them within the reach of the Western States that pay a large fee and have only a small representation present. It seems to me that in that case we would offer them a much greater return for the money we ask them to pay, and also place the National Association en rapport with an infinite number of local organizations which are not auxiliary because there is no advantage to be derived. Mrs. LONG, Ill. : Mrs. Avery has made my speech, but she as done it a great deal better than I could. The lady from Ohio spoke of having all the experience in Washington. Couldn't it be trans- 46 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. ferred to Cleveland or Omaha or St. Louis? Couldn't the ladies go west as well a few of us come east and expend so much time and money? I am the only one here from Illinois, except I picked up one lady here and made her a delegate, and I feel that it is a great deal on my shoulders. Try us west. We will be glad to see you, welcome you, and to entertain you. We have great hearts west and we will be glad to see you. For my part I must vote for the migratory convention. Mrs. ELWELL, Ohio: I merely wanted to say that it seems to me eminently proper that our convention should be held at the National Capital. I should think that any one could see, since it is a National Association, we should meet annually at our National Capital. I do not see any reason why the women from the West cannot come to Washington as well at the women from the East can go to Omaha. We have our friends here and our legislators are here, and it seems to me eminently proper that our convention should be held here. Mrs. HALL, Mich. : I desire to indorse what Mrs. Elwell says. It meets my views exactly. Mrs. BARNES, Ill. : The National Democratic party moves its conventions, so does the Republican party, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. I think we should profit by their experience and their example, and hold our conventions in different cities. Mrs. DEWITT, N. J. : I merely wanted to say that while we are all anxious to go out West to see our sisters there, it seems to me that so long as woman suffrage is knocking at the doors of Congress we should not desert the Capital of the United States. Mrs. DIETRICK, Mass. : It seems to me the last speaker makes one mistake. The Government of the United States does not rest in that building. That is the reason we want to go to the people. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 47 Mrs. GREENLEAF, New York: I would take issue with the last speaker. The government has not been with the people as yet. I think it is better to come here where Congress will hear us directly, and bring such influence to bear on it as possible. At least, I think a convention should be held here during the first session of each Congress. I feel a sympathy for those laddies who have so far to come, but I would say to them, "You must be willing to come up here and beg and besiege and batter Congress, until we get our rights." Mrs. HOWE, Penn.: While this may not be a government of the people it is a government of the men, and my impression of the situation is that the legislators could enact such legislation as they deemed best, without regard to their constituency. Mrs. SEGUR, Ohio: A great mistake would be made in moving this convention from the seat of the Government. The most that has been accomplished has been in Washington. We have had migratory conventions, and the work they did was not equal to that done by the National Woman Suffrage Association. To move the annual delegate convention all over this country would, in my opinion, be a very grave mistake. We should have one delegate convention at the National Capital and one at every State capital if possible. I think these young people do not understand the gravity of the error they are making. As a twenty-five-year-old worker, I deeply regret to see this effort. We shall not be as prosperous if we move the convention from Washington. Mrs. Hall, Mich.: I endorse the sentiments of the preceding speaker. Mrs. BOLAND, Mass.: I can not agree with the remarks of the lady who preceded me. We are not considering moving the convention at all, but we are considering whether we are to give discretionary power to the Executive Committee to move the convention; and if the arguments presented in favor of holding the conventions in Washington seem valid to the Executive Committee, they will continue to hold them in Washington. It seems to me we should give the right to our committee to decide on the merits of this question as to whether the conven- 48 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. tion should be fixed in Washington. Personally I think it is a great inspiration to have the committee meet in any city. I suppose the Woman Suffrage Association will get tired of having the Woman's Christian Temperance Union quoted to them; but a lady told me that after their convention was held in Boston, there was a very great increase of sentiment there in favor of the movement. I am sure that would be the case in other cities were this society to hold its conventions in other places. Let us entrust our Executive Committee with the power of moving the convention if they think it wise to do so. Miss Campbell, Pa. : I think we are giving too much discretionary power to the Executive Committee. I think this is a right that should not be delegated to the Executive Committee, no matter how much confidence we have in them. Every delegate is directly interested in the place where the meeting is to be held, and I think it is too much to give into the hands of a few. Mrs. Colby, Neb. : All the arguments that can be brought for moving the conventions are of an educational kind. But local education can not be done in detail by the National Woman Suffrage Association ; it must be done by the States. I am very much in favor of the National Suffrage Association holding a convention anywhere and everywhere it may be needed to rouse that locality and start the machinery to work, or I am in favor of sending national help to them. But I think the main purpose of this organization, aside from doing the State work through its State auxiliaries, is to do work through Congress. This is the twenty-fifth convention held in Washington, and every woman thrills with that saying. We have representatives from nine or ten Southern States, and I ask you is we had been migrating from Boston to California how long would it have been before we converted these Southern States? They were brought in because we held our conventions here on common ground ; common to them and common to all the country ; and when our convention is held here in the capital of the nation, it is to all intents and purposes held simultaneously in every capital in this country. All the work that is done here is carried out by the Associated Press dispatches ; the hearings and arguments before Congress are franked and sent all over the country. 49 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Miss Gillette, D. C. : I want to disclaim any personal feeling, because I am a Washington woman. It seems to me that it is necessary that we should work in two places-in our Congress and in the States too. I do not know how I shall vote on this question. I think the education should be carried on from both points. I am in favor of the convention in Washington and I am in favor of the convention in Washington and I am in favor of conventions in other cities. Miss Clay, Ky. : One of the ladies has said that the Southern States were converted from the conventions in Washington. I received a letter the morning I started from home, written by a lady in Texas, telling me that she had so recently learned of the convention in Washington that she could not make arrangements to come here. Kentucky owes such a debt of gratitude to the movable convention that I desire to speak of it here. We have had suffrage sentiment in Kentucky for more than twenty years, but we have never had anything like a State society in Kentucky until the American came to Cincinnati in 1887, when a society was organized ; in 1888, when they met again in Cincinnati, the woman suffragists of Kentucky seized that grand opportunity of hearing all the great women. If Kentucky had no other reason for voting for the movable conventions, gratitude alone would induce her to do so. The people who are constantly coming to conventions have no idea of the thrill of enthusiasm that is sent into every heart when they come into the presence of the leaders of the movement. Mrs. Chamberlain, Fla. : As a southern delegate I want to indorse every word the last speaker said. Mrs. Warner, Neb. : We have not, as a delegation, been instructed how to vote by our State, and we really feel that we would like to be informed on all these amendments and their import before deciding on one that may compromise us. There is one introduced by Mrs. Avery that I think would fill both bills-to come here every alternative year. Miss Anthony (having resigned the chair to the Vice-President) said : I can not say anything in three minutes. 4 w s 50 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. It was moved and seconded that Miss Anthony be allowed more time ; which motion was adopted by the Convention. Miss Anthony : I want to ask one question. What is the object of having a national organization? The women in the States have one specific thing to do, and that is to create public sentiment in those States in order to influence their legislators to give suffrage to women. That is clear. The question is, Why do we need a national association since the people in each State must do the work in their State? There must be an object why we unite in a national body. It is not to educate the people in the school districts of the State. The sole object, it seems to me, of this national organization is to bring the united influence of all the States combined upon Congress to secure national legislation. The very moment you change the purpose of this great body from national work to district work you have defeated its object. It is the business of the States to do the school district work ; their business to make public sentiment ; their business to make a national organization possible, so that all together we can bring the power of all the State organizations here and focus it on Congress. Our younger workers necessarily can not appreciate the vast amount of work done here in Washington by the National Association in the last twenty-five years. When the State delegates come here they do not come as individual women ; they come here representing the whole State and every particle of sentiment in that State. They bring here their whole State society. When Mrs. Greenleaf, the President of the New York State Society, stands on this floor she does not represent herself, merely, but the one thousand four hundred and thirty-six members of her State society and that is what every State president does. We have had these national conventions here for twenty-five years, and every single Congress has given hearings to our best speakers-the ablest women we could bring from every possible section. In the olden times the States were not fully organized-they had not money enough to pay their delegate's expenses. We begged and worked and saved the money and this National Association paid the expenses of delegates from Oregon and California in order that they might come and bring the influence of their States to bear upon Congress. The needs of California for State legislation are there. We do not go to California to influence the State legislature, MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 51 but we want that State organization to come here and combine with all the other States to influence national legislation. My friend, Mrs. Hall, who gives her money to this cause like water, could pay a dozen lecturers to go over the State of Michigan and to canvass every school district ; and yet it wouldn't have the influence of the one speech delivery by Senator Palmer on the floor of the Senate. With his millions he caused 50,000 copies of his speech to be published and sent them over the entire nation. In this way more work has been done by the national body than could every be done my work in the school districts. Mr. Palmer's speech was sent over the telegraphic wires, or a synopsis of it, and it appeared in every morning newspaper throughout the country and it was published in every country paper of the State of Michigan but one. How could we have gotten the papers of Michigan to publish the speech of anybody else, but the speech of their own Senator on the floor of the U. S. Senate? In our twenty-five years of work here we have done more effective school district work through this instrumentality than by all others put together. It is because I want the educational work done in the school districts through this that I do not want this national body to decide that it will become a movable body. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is not a parallel case. It is not organized for the purpose of working upon Congress to enfranchise half the people. The power of a national organization lies in the fact that it concentrates all of its powers in one direction and to one point. If this national body desires Washington there will be a vacuum ; and nature abhors a vacuum, so there will be somebody else to fill it. Look at last winter. We had twenty-three States represented here by delegates. Think of those twenty-three women going up before the Senate committee, each making her speech, and convincing those Senators of the interest in all these respective States. We have educated between three and four hundred men and their wives and daughters every two years to go home as missionaries in their respective States. I shall feel it a grave mistake if you vote in favor of a movable convention. It will lessen our power, our influence, our might. But come what may, I shall abide by the decision of the majority. I detest bolting parties. I shall belong to you, and be with you all the way through to the end, though you vote down this and every other pet idea of mine. 52 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mr. Blackwell, Mass.: I move that we substitute the proposition of Mrs. Avery for the proposition of Mrs. Murphy. Mrs. Warner, Neb.: I have been a friend of suffrage for twenty-five years or more, though I have been able in all these years to come to this convention but twice. But the reports of it have been very inspiring. I must say that I should be very sorry to see this central point abandoned and the convention become migratory. Miss Blackwell : It seems to me that it is not necessary to desert Washington if we hold our delegate convention somewhere else. I do not depreciate the value of the work on Congress or the value of having documents franked and sent over the country. We cannot well have a hearing before the same Congress twice. This year we probably shall not have one. Why not leave the Executive Committee free to hold our annual meeting at least every other year somewhere else? I do not see why, if we should abandon Washington, that some evil spirit must necessarily come in and possess it. Whenever there is occasion for somebody to come in and make a demonstration, the National American can come and hold a convention without being tied to holding its annual delegate convention here. Miss Shaw : I want to state my reasons before I vote, so you will understand my position. I am opposed to moving the convention, but I believe sometimes it is well to compromise in a large body where the body is pretty evenly divided ; and if Mrs. Avery's amendment was before the house I would vote in favor of that. I believe better work is done for the cause by holding this convention annually in the city of Washington. I believe its effect from here is better than it could be from any other place, and I believe more good will come to the cause from continuing to hold it here. Mrs. Colby, Neb.: I move to substitute Mrs. Avery's amendment for the one under discussion. The motion to substitute was carried. Mrs. Dietrick, Mass.: I move that we adopt Mrs. Avery's amendment. 53 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mrs. Southworth, Ohio : There is another incipient association, just forming, called the Federal Suffrage Association, and it has discussed the question whether it shall hold its convention in Washington. I have been consulted on that point myself, and I have said emphatically, " No. " When this National Association deserts Washington, it is legitimate ground for some other association to come in. If you have one session here one year, and another somewhere else the next year, it complicates matters. Miss Blackwell : The convention next year will be held here anyway, and if it is found desirable to preoccupy the ground ourselves there is nothing to prevent us having the convention here. Mrs. Murphy, Ohio : The greatest good to the greatest number is the thing we want to adopt. I am perfectly willing to withdraw my amendment in favor of that of Mrs. Avery. I hope this amendment will be adopted, and if we need our conventions more in the West than we do here, we can move them ; and if perchance some one can come here and do some good, let them come. Mrs. Colby, Neb.: I have not found any one from the West who favors this change. I was at Toledo and attended a meeting that instructed Mrs. Segur to come here and vote against moving the convention from Washington. Mrs. Segur, Ohio : Every member of the Toledo Woman Suffrage Association instructed me to come here and protest against the destruction of the National Woman Suffrage Association by moving its delegate convention from Washington. Mrs. Murphy, Ohio : I am from the Political Equality club, of Toledo, which I think is quite as large as the other and my instructions are to vote for it. A rising vote was called for, which resulted in thirty-seven for and twenty-eight against. Mrs. Avery's amendment was therefore adopted. 54 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. MONDAY JANUARY 16, 1893. EVENING SESSION. Rev. ANNIS F. EASTMAN opened the evening meeting with prayer. This was followed by a selection by the Mandolin Club, of Washington. They responded to an encore. MISS ANTHONY said that while she greatly regretted to announce a break in the programme because Senator Carey was not well enough to be present, still she was glad it was a man and not a woman who absence she had to announce. She paid a high compliment to Senator Carey as our stalwart champion and she hoped that the audience would hear from him at a later day. * HENRY B. BLACKWELL then gave an address on Presidential suffrage which was advertised for Wednesday evening. This subject is one which Mr. Blackwell has long studied , and the result of the study was interesting indeed. The next speaker was MRS. ELLEN BATTELLE DIETRICK, of Boston, whose bright and logical address was frequently interrupted with applause. MISS ANTHONY then gave her report as President of the Association: This has been a most favorable year in our movement. men and women are continually saying , " What have you gained with all this forty years of work ? " we have gained everything. [Applause.] Look at the great Methodist conference at Omaha last spring discussing the question of allowing women to be ordained. The vote was never before so large in that great body of ministers in favor of equal rights in the *WASHINGTON , D.C. , January 16th , 1893, DEAR MISS ANTHONY: I called on Saturday , hoping to see you . I am so much indisposed to-day that I find it will be impossible to address the Woman Suffrage Convention this evening. I regret this very much , for it has always been a pleasure to me to bear testimony to the favorable workings of woman's suffrage, My belief amounts to conviction on this subject, and I feel that I know that if the result could only be good for both men and women. I sincerely hope that the convention may be fraught with good: and I promise if it becomes possible , it will be a source of pleasure to me to attend at least some of the meetings of the convention. Yours very respectfully, JOSEPH M. CAREY; MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION . 55 Methodist church . Then the Rev. Mrs. Eastman, who delivered the sermon yesterday , is another straw showing what we have gained. She was ordained by the orthodox ministers of the Congregational Church of western New York . Forty years ago they would have flown away to the moon or somewhere else before they would let a woman speak in a meeting. A Congregational church in Illinois twenty-five years ago was rent in twain because a woman prayed in a meeting. I have had the pleasure of representing this national organization at two or three of the Presidential nominating conventions in the last year. The first was that of the Republicans at Minneapolis, and what was to be seen there? Two women, alternate delegates, from the State of Wyoming. [Applause.] I saw these women with my own eyes [laughter], and one of them had voted at every election for the last twenty-five years, and when those women entered the hall seating twelve thousand people the men arose and waved their handkerchiefs and gave three times three cheers for the women-delegates. How different was that scene from the one witnessed in 1868, when , for the first time, this national organization sent a delegation to eh Democratic convention in New York city. We were looked at and jeered , and our own woman suffrage friends were horrified and thought we had killed the cause eternally, but we survived it and now you see women nominated, voted for and elected as alternate delegates; and one of those delegates told me that the real delegate was bound that he would be the alternate and she the regular delegate, but she shrank from taking the position. Only think how polite the men will be when we get the right to vote. When the Oregon delegation was on its way to Minneapolis they discovered that two of their alternated had failed to put in an appearance, and they proceeded to elect two women, who were of the party from their State, as alternates, and so Oregon had two women alternates also elected by the delegates on their way there. Is not that something of a gain? Those women held their places through that entire convention. Then , a little more. In your behalf I appeared there with a memorial asking the Republicans to put an indorsement of suffrage for women in their platform. I waited a good while to get a hearing before the committee, which was composed of one of the delegates from each of the States represented there. At last I was admitted. I said " You see I am here to ask you to say in words what you practice. " I then told them the thins which the Republicans had done for us here on the floor of Congress. I told them the nicest story I knew, and when I 56 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION . left that committee after the twenty minutes' talk every man of them rose to his feet and stood while I left the room; and, as I passed down the length of the table , one and another said "Miss Anthony, if I had my own way about it that plank would be in the platform." There was no individual man who spoke to me who did not believe in the principle. We made a great gain in the Republican platform, because at the last Presidential convention they had said that there should be a free ballot and a fair count for every man, and now they said every United States citizen is entitled and should be protected in a free ballot and a fair count. We think they are going our way and there is no telling where they will end. That convention was a magnificent gathering of men. Mr. Chauncey Depew made a characteristic speech, in which he set forth all the grand and glorious work of the Republican party. Ex-Speaker Reed climaxed his impromptu address by saying: "Grand as are the victories and glorious as is the record of the past of the Republican party the future is to be grander still. There is a greater work to be done." And then he went on to say that this greater work was to secure to every citizen of the United States the right to vote; and when I wrote a note at midnight and sent it to him asking, "Why, in heaven's name, did you not say, 'Every citizen of the United States- man or woman?'" he said he forgot it. Just the best woman suffrage men we have always forget it. They will never remember it until we hold that little ballot in our hands and then never a man of them will forget it. I went to the convention of the Democratic party to represent you. I did not go there as myself; I went there with twenty thousand women at my back. I am nobody as myself; I am everybody as representing this public sentiment. That is the good of being a representative; it is the good of having a constituency. "When I speak as part of the American Anti-Slavery Society I represent millions and speak with a million voices," said Wendell Phillips. The Democrats gave me exactly the same polite treatment as the Republicans; but they didn't even stop to think about anybody being oppressed, or anybody under the shadow of the American flag not in full possession of full-fledged citizenship; but they did think of the poor Jews in Russia. Who were the men who helped us in both conventions? The Wyoming delegates first, and next to Wyoming the Kansas men. Why? Because in both States women are voters. Then I went to the People's party convention. My able assistant and right hand man, the Vice-President-at-Large, MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 57 Rev. Anna H. Shaw, was with me, and she did the biggest part of the work up there. We did get them to say in their preamble that before the work of the People's party should be fully accomplished, all citizens- men and women- must be protected in their right to vote. Then I have heard of a good many other ways in which there has been a growth on this question. In educational conventions, in various religious conventions, in various workingmen's conventions, in the farmers' conventions we have had useful agitation on this question. Wendell Phillips said what he wanted to do on the abolition question was to turn Congress into an anti-slavery debating society. That is what we have done with every educational, industrial, religious and political body- we have turned them all into debating societies on the woman question. Last winter we had a bill for the election of delegates to the constitutional convention in the State of New York, which provided that the governor should appoint twelve delegates at large, four to represent the laboring interests of the State, four to represent temperance interests, and four to represent the woman suffrage interests. The governor said if we could get that bill through the legislature he would sign it and appoint four of the ablest women in New York to sit in that convention. Is not that a gain? That bill passed the Assembly by an overwhelming majority and came up in the Senate on the very last day of the session, and because of a lieutenant-governor who was blind and deaf all that day to the men who wanted to bring that bill up, they couldn't get it up in the Senate. The senator from my city- and thanks to Mrs. Greenleaf and the Political Equality Club of Rochester- there can't be a member of the State legislature from Rochester who is not in favor of suffrage. A voice: Nor a member of Congress either. No. There was another bill introduced into the New York legislature which provided for the political enfranchisement of the woman wage-workers. This was opposed by some of the legislators because it would give the servant the rights which mistresses did not have, and it was finally amended so as to make it a bill for full suffrage for the women of New York. It passed the Assembly by a large majority and was lost by a small majority in the Senate. Who shall say we have gained nothing? When Governor Flower sent his message to the legislature this winter he recommended that the law should be so framed as to require that women should be delegates to the constitutional convention. His request was submitted, and it is now obligatory upon the men of the State 58 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. that part of that convention shall be women. I want ever one of you to see that the thing to do to day is not to theorize, but to put your hands to the work of getting on this question in every possible gathering of men for any and every possible purpose. The woman question may come in anywhere. With the immense public sentiment we have in the State of New York it is scarcely possible that we shall fail to amend the constitution by striking the word "male" from the suffrage clause. In Kansas both the People's Party and the Republican party are pledged to the submission of this proposition, and if the two ever get together and know who owns the legislature the first thing they will do will be to submit a proposition to strike the word "male" from the constitution, and since these two parties control the legislature, all but five belonging to one or the other, there is not a possibility, but that when we have done the work and canvassed the State the majority will vote for enfranchisement of women. I think the chance is greater there because the women hold the balance of power in the two hundred and eighty-five cities, and the majority of men in the cities are bound to do what the women want them to do; and so I appeal to you, men and women, whether you live in one State or another, to concentrate your money and your forces on Kansas. Before we get through with this Convention we shall talk more about it, and I hope I shall see such a response as we have never had before. The meeting now stands adjourned until 10 o'clock to-morrow morning. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 59 TUESDAY, January 17th, 1893. ------- MORNING SESSION The PRESIDENT: The first business this morning is the consideration of the proposed amendment to By-law 6. Here is given the by-law and amendment as proposed by Miss Blackwell: "Every delegate shall be entitled to one vote on all questions, but only on the election of officers shall the delegates be entitled to case the full vote to which the organizations represented by them are entitled." Miss BLACKWELL: In the election of officers, the delegates present from each State shall cast the full vote to which organization represented by them is entitled. The vote shall be taken in the same way upon any other question whenever the delegates present from three States concur in asking for it. IN other cases each delegate shall have one vote. Mrs. MURPHY, of Ohio, moved its adoption. Mrs. AVERY moved to amend by saying instead of "whenever the delegates from three States concur in asking for it," "whenever the majority of delegates present concur in asking for it." Mrs. COLBY moved to amend by saying "that it shall be a majority of the States present." Mrs. SEGUR, of Ohio, seconded Mrs. Avery's motion as amended by Mrs. Colby. Miss CLAY of Kentucky, spoke against the amendment as amended, giving as her reason that on important questions such a plan of the States should have a right to their full vote. Mrs. BLACKWELL amended her own amendment, changing the number from three to five. Mrs. AVERY withdrew her amendment in favor of Miss Blackwell's as amended. Miss BLACKWELL's amendment was adopted. 60 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. At the request of Miss ANTHONY, Miss CLAY moved that the Business Committee be instructed to eliminate the repetitions of National American Woman Suffrage Association in the constitution. This motion was carried. Miss BLACKWELL: I move that the office of National Lecturer be abolished. Miss CLAY: Well, some on state why this action is desirable. Miss BLACKWELL: I cannot remember the full discussion that took place last year. I think the idea was that the Vice-President-at-Large virtually filled the office of National Lecturer by traveling all over the country and presenting the question in the lecture field, and we seem to be likely to save trouble and possibly some feeling by abolishing the office. Mrs. AVERY: There was one point that I think was brought up. There was a suggestion that the business committee form a lecture bureau. This was not carried out, but there is a Woman's Lecture Bureau under the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. It is not a temperance lecture bureau, but a Woman's Lecture Bureau, and somewhat fills the needs of the case. Miss BLACKWELL's motion was adopted. ----------- TUESDAY AFTERNOON. The PRESIDENT: Harriet Taylor Upton, chairman of the Press committee, will read her report.* Mrs. UPTON: Both last year and this year this committee prepared for the local press items of interest to the association and convention, sent off daily dispatches through the Associated Press, and assisted local reporters as much as possible. The printing of the report of the convention of 1893 was put into the committee's hands. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *This report is condensed into about one-fifth its original space. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 61 During the year the chairman has attempted to devise a means of hereafter gathering all the press work in the States by State or local societies. Her failure to fill her committee and do a good work lay in the fact that she had no printed report of the instructions of the Executive Committee meetings last year. Mrs. Avery and the chairman together sent letters to every State President asking them to report the condition of their press work. Few answered. Those reporting their existence of press committees were: Vermont, Iowa, Utah, Rhode Island, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Arkansas. Nebraska suggests that district vice-president ought to secure space in the local papers. Kansas considers a State superintendent who will edit all matter the best way of disposing of the matter. Let us look ahead now to the new year. There are hundreds of papers in the United States which would print short articles, if there was some one to prepare them, and we have no more right to neglect those chances than a housekeeper has to neglect her kitchen. Two-thirds of our labor is lost if the news of woman's advancement is no published. How shall we make uniform work of this? Shall there be a national committee of one or three or five, to who the State superintendents shall report the work of the State societies? Shall the North American society reommend that each State president appoint a State superintendent? Shall these superintendents appoint an assistant in each district or county, depending upon the organization? And shall the local committees report to these officers? In most twos having a local club of twenty, the editors of the papers will give the club a column, provided the club edits it. At the end of the year these clubs could report to the district superintendent how many weeks they had filled the column; the district superintendent could tabulate these reports and send them to the State superintendent, who in turn could tabulate for all the districts and send to the National Committees. If the locals wish, they could report more than the number of insertions, they could report the kind of matter inserted, the effect upon communities, etc. It seems we could then determine how much work we are doing, as well as the best manner of reaching indifferent people. I would be opposed to Mrs. Johns' plan, and it's the firs plan of Mrs. Johns that I ever did oppose, that is, to have the State superintendent do the editing. In order that we may get to this properly, and that the Executive Committee may know how to instruct the new Press Committee, I move we proceed to an informal discussion 62 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. sion of the matter, and that each State be allowed to speak upon the subject but once until all States have expressed an opinion. The Secretary called the roll, the States responding with the following reports : Mrs. Davis, Ark. : I scarcely know what to say for Arkansas. We have a State paper there, which does excellent work and is alive-the Woman's Chronicle, published at Little Rock, by Kate Cuningham. Mrs. Blakesley, Conn. : Our local club has had a column once a week in our daily paper for nearly three years. As a State society we have done nothing, and have not a Press Committee.* Mrs. Upton : What we want to put into the papers is little short news about suffrage or about people or the work done in the different States. Three lines about a certain amendment before the Kansas Legislature will reach more people than a whole column about the theory of the work. It seems to me that it would be nice for the National Association to turn over to the District of Columbia Association the Associated Press work, it to be their duty to see that once a week there goes to the Associated Press a small item on woman suffrage. Mrs. Pickler, S. D. : I can say I indorse the idea thoroughly, and I think we have plenty of women n our State to do it. Mrs. Chamberlain, Florida : Independently a few weeks ago I secured space in one of the best known and important papers in Southern Florida. The editor gave me all the space I wanted. She is a woman, but not in favor of suffrage. I tried to carry on campaign of education by giving opinions of prominent persons, endeavoring to take in all the churches. If the bishop of the church said anything in favor of woman I put that in. Miss Howard, Ga. : From last December until October one of the Georgia members support a column in a Georgia county paper which *Miss Smith, of Connecticut, had not reached the city at this time, but at the final executive meeting she presented facts and correspondence with the Associated Press of New York city. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 63 has a circulation of over one thousand. In October the editor gave notice that, owing to the pressure on his columns during the winter, he was reluctantly compelled to request the discontinuation of the articles on woman suffrage. Within the last three years we have had columns in three papers. The editors withdrew the space, as they said it would injure their business. Whenever we find an editor expresses the least liberality of sentiment we request him to give us space. Generally we fail to get it ; but we shall continue to request each new editor that comes into the State for space. Mrs Chamberlain. Fla. : The Southern editor may not care to have editorials on the subject, but I think he would put in a notice that Mr. Breckenridge's daughter had been admitted to the bar. He would hardly reject that. Mrs. Long, Ill. : The women of Illinois have learned that the press is the great Corliss engine of society, and we have learned to publish our doings. We do not have columns. For instance, if I go home from this convention I shall write it up for our local papers. We do not have columns. For instance, if I go home from this convention I shall write it up for our local papers. We believe in the press, and we take all the women's papers we can hear of. I want to say that I am in favor of Mrs. Johns' plan. I think the idea is grand. Mrs. Waugh, Ind. : I believe we have no woman's paper in Indiana, but I think the State journals, especially the daily and Sunday journals, are favorable to columns for women if we had some one to edit them. On Sunday the papers are given over mostly to woman's work ; they think their readers are mostly women. Mrs. Davis, Kan. : I can only speak for middle Kansas. The column in the Beloit Gazette had wonderful influence. I believe in columns. They may not be read in the cities, but in the country every line in the local papers is read. The President : Every paper in the State of Kansas has a woman suffrage column, for if it doesn't, it doesn't get the woman's vote. Miss Broderick, Kan. : Mrs. Johns' idea is to have this work spread throughout the State through the county newspapers. There are probably only one-third of the people of Kansas that take daily papers. It is desirable to have this work passed through the hand of a State 64 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. superintendent, and in that way reach the weeklies. Of course, if the work should all be sent in it would take some time to look it over, but it all could not go in one issue of the paper, and the work sent in would probably cover two or three months' work in advance. I think the idea a good one. Miss Clay, Ky. : We have a State superintendent in Kentucky. Mrs. Henry has kept the column in the State Prohibition organ, and she speaks of suffrage whenever possible. The Lexington association keeps up a column in the Democratic paper, and another is kept up in a Republican paper. I may say that the need of Kentucky is, some one to put something in the papers. The fact is, I am sorry to say, that we have had again and again invitations to keep a column in the papers, but we had no one to do it. The President : The papers are a good deal more willing to receive items than the women are to write them. Mrs. Bailey, Maine : Until our last annual convention met two weeks ago we had no press committee. There was one appointed then, and I have no doubt that Maine will be heard from in the future. A good deal was done last year in this direction, but we had no special committee. Mrs. Thomas, Md. : If there is a paper in the State of Maryland which will give every day or every week any regular portion of its columns to woman suffrage, I do not know it. Some time ago we tried to secure a column in our local paper, which was begging us to send articles to them. I intended to administer a great many doses in that column ; but, while the editor was very anxious to have such articles as, "Mrs. John Smith has gone to New York," he wasn't willing to give space for suffrage items ; but I will keep the matter open, and for the suggestion of sending short newsy items, I am much obliged. Mrs. Dietrick, Mass. : I will say that Massachusetts endorses Mrs. Johns' idea that there would be a superintendent for every State, because it seems otherwise the work is without a head. The superintendent may be in one sense a State editor, and where there is no work she may assist the editors of the suffrage papers. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 65 Mrs. Upton, Ohio : I would like to say that I think it would be well to have a State superintendent, so that all this matter can be reported to her, and she can tell us what has been done. But I do not believe any one woman can edit all the matter in the State. Mrs. Deitrick, Mass. : I think one of the best uses of a State superintendent is to make her responsible for the work in the State. The President : I think you all agree that a National superintendent is to stir up the State superintendents, and then you will want the State superintendents to stir up every local superintendent. Miss Blackwell, Mass. : I should like to add a word for Massachusetts. It has been said that the great office of a National or State superintendent is to stir up those below them. The work for the local papers is to be done locally, and the business of the State superintendent is to make the lives of the local a burden to them until they look after the local papers. Massachusetts has for many years supplied a large number of papers over the country with items. Some years a committee of the Woman Suffrage Association sent out a circular to all the papers in the Northern and Western States inviting them to have a woman's column and offering to supply matter. Over one thousand accepted and were supplied. We found that about one-third of them never used the matter at all and we stopped sending to them, but it has been sent to the others ever since. I am told by our exchange editor that anything that goes into the woman's column soon after comes out in the local papers all over the country. So I think that it is a good thing to do ; but were an editor will use anything sent out in that way a great many more will use the same matter if prepared by some local member. Mr. Blackwell, Mass. : I think it is better not to ask for a column. I think there is no paper in the United States that will not, in a majority of cases every week in the year, put in one or more items of news. For instance, that "such and such women has graduated as a physician," or that "such and such a woman has been admitted to the bar." I think it will not be out of place for me to say that we have a women's column which we send 5 W C 66 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. for 25 cents a year. Any woman receiving that can take the same items and copy them word for word and send it in as her own item and it will generally be printed. If she cuts it out and send it, it may not go in. With the items which can be gotten from the Woman's Column or from the Woman's Tribune for $1 a year there should be a woman in every county in this country who will send every week to the papers in her county one or more items of news. Thus we would have woman suffrage in every county in the United States. Miss Hatch, Mass. (National): Every month at our executive meeting it is considered the duty as well as the pleasure for each member to keep run of things in the papers that speak of the progress of women and to bring them to the meeting. This duty is very well carrier out. Sometimes newspaper clippings are brought and sometimes they are written out. Then at the close of the meeting we take such time as we can and put these together and send them to the papers with the report of our meeting. We have three of the daily papers in Boston that always print these every month, and sometimes we can get them in more if we have time to send them. Therefore no regular contribution is sent to local papers, except this from our association, although we consider it a very important part of our work. Mrs. Hall, Mich.: There is no woman's paper published in Michigan, but the papers generally are favorable to woman suffrage. I always feel insulted when the woman's column is headed "Of Interest to the Fair Sex." Mr. Blackwell, Mass.: Mrs. Dorsett, of Minnesota, had a little hand-press, and she and her husband were in the habit of writing and setting up a little article on woman suffrage and sending slips off to every paper that would use them. I think perhaps in Kentucky, where they want matter and can't get it, they might be supplied in this way. Mrs. Minor, Mo.: The president of the State association has sent in her report and I have no doubt it is good. It will not be proper for me to forestall anything in that report. The President: The papers of Missouri are ready to receive items like the papers of every other State if you will make it easy for the editor. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 67 Mrs. Warner, Neb,: In Nebraska a large number of persons have taken the Woman's Journal and the Woman's Tribune and they have had a great influence. The State Journal, of Lincoln, did publish quite a department called the Round Table once a week, edited by some very capable women, one of them on the school board. It used to contain a great deal of suffrage matter. The paper gets the Associated Press dispatches with the news of women just the same as anything else. We get the news from out of the daily papers that Yale has admitted women to the post-graduate course or that Johns Hopkins has opened its doors to women. The managing editor of that paper is not a suffragist, but he gives it as news. There are, I think, in the northwestern part of the State two or three county papers that have columns edited by officers of the State Association. I would say with regard to future work that I think we have enough papers devoted entirely to suffrage and they ought to be sustained. Mrs. Ricker, N.H.: I have done a great deal of work in New Hampshire, and the editors are always willing to give space. Dr. Mary Hussey, N.J.: At the last meeting of the New Jersey State society a resolution was passed in favor of having active press work done in the State for the coming year. Mrs. Greenleaf, N.Y.: We have not until our last convention in November had a press committee appointed, but we have done local press work, I think, more or less throughout the State. In Rochester we have had a woman's column and are constantly sending items to the press, and we have a press committee appointed. We have appointed Mr. Harris, of Chautauqua County, our Superintendent of Press Work. The New York Sun now devotes several columns to woman's work, and they speak very respectfully of the work in New York. Mrs. Segur, Ohio.; It will not be necessary for me to tell you of the work in Ohio, in connection with the press. In Toledo the woman's society control the secular press. They want items, but they do not want it known that they are exactly woman suffrage items. We put items of local news, and in that way the Toledo Society controls four daily papers and one society 68 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. paper in the interest of woman suffrage. I would like to say to the editors of the Woman's Tribune and the Journal that I think bright as they are would hardly recognize their items as stolen from them, in their new dress. Miss Campbell, Penn.: At our last annual meeting we decided to have a committee on press work, and a month ago we appointed a chairman of such committee. I know of some ladies who are going to start a paper in Philadelphia. It will come out monthly and be for the advancement of women. I have been invited to take a little part in that paper, and of course I will be please to do it. Mrs. Howe, Penn.: I have had little experience in the line of State work, but find our local editors are to willing to take anything I will take to them. In county papers I think a woman suffrage column would be a good thing. Mr. Blackwell, Mass.: In the absence of any delegate from South Carolina, I would like to say a word of Virginia Young. She is almost, if not the only, South Carolina woman who persistently writes letters on woman suffrage to the papers in that State, and succeeds in getting them printed. They are put under disrespectful headlines, but she succeeds in getting them published nevertheless, and they do good. Miss Dangerfield, Va.: We find that we can get any item of news in the Virginia papers if we give it in a form the editors like. The local paper in Culpeper is published by a woman who is a suffragist. We find that any news items, as for instance, Mrs. Orra Langhorn was invited to speak before the National Convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association will be published in the Virginia papers, but we find that our items go in best merely as news items. They don't like it purely as in favor of suffrage. I must confess that in Virginia suffrage by any other name is a little bit sweeter. Mrs. Murphy, Ohio : As a newspaper woman I would like to say one word. I think we have been talking more about what has been done than of what we are going to do. Every editor in this country is always anxious to print the news. If he gets the news, written on one side of the paper legibly, he will print it, but he will not print long essays on any subject. If you send MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 69 a note to an editor and tell him that a certain woman in town made twenty-four pounds of butter in a day he will print it, but he will not print an essay on butter-making. We have suffrage papers all over the country, and they, as well as the newspapers, are looking for items of news. The editors of all the papers can write their own editorials but they all want news. If you will all remember to boil down your sentiments and make news notes you will get it in the paper every time Mrs. Doolittle, D. C.: I approve of Mrs. Upton's plan. The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to State reports.* These were enlivened with a violin solo by Mr. Joseph May Douglass, grandson of Hon. Frederick Douglass, who was not only enchored, but given a vote of thanks. ______ Tuesday Evening. The session was opened with a solo by Miss Blasland, accompanied by Miss Bailey. In announcing that Mrs. May Wright Sewall would not be present on account of sickness, Miss Anthony gracefully removed the laurel which the night before she had placed upon the head of her sex, and then introduced Miss Broderick, of Kansas, daughter of Judge Broderick, of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Repreprentatives. Miss Broderick read the report of the Kansas Campaign Committee prepared by Laura M. Johns: The year opened up energetically and gloriously with a series of thirty conventions, beginning February 8th and continuing to March 22nd, entering every Congressional district and nearly one-third of the counties of the State. This series of great meetings was projected by your Committee on Special Work, of which the undersigned had the honor to be chairman; Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, Secretary and Treasurer; and Mrs. Powell Davis, Mrs. Martia L. Berry, Mrs. Anna L. Diggs, and Mrs. Anna C. Wait, members. Mrs. _____________________________________________________________ *For convenience these reports are arranged in alphabetcal order and will be found elsewhere in this report. 70 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Avery contributed $1,000, and thus supplied with the "sinews of war," we went to work with unwonted courage. To be possessed of the sustaining wherewithal for equipment mightily strengthens the hands of the "manager" of a series of suffrage conventions. The agitation was timely. Subsequent events demonstrate that fact clearly. The newspaper reports of the meetings found audience that never get into lecture-halls. The vast crowds attending the meetings, the length of the series, and the fame of the speakers could not fail to attract public attention. That so many two-day conventions were gotten into six weeks was due to the fact that they were arranged to overlap. I can recommend this plan as a saving of time and money, but must mention that it offers difficulties and complications, which, however, can be overcome by close attention to details and thoughtful management. Our speakers from out the State were Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell, Mrs. Clara Hoffman, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, and Miss Florence Balgarnie. Our speakers and workers from the ranks of our own Kansas women were Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins, Mrs. J. Shelly-Boyd, Mrs. May Bellville-Brown, Mrs. S. A. Thurston, and Mrs. C. L. Denton, our force never at any time exceeding six, and for one week reduced to four speakers. Twenty-seven organizations were among the happy results of these meetings. Four organizations have been effected since. Our fist convention was help in Kansas City, Missouri, and it called together many Missouri suffragists. In this meeting the Missouri State Suffrage Association elected new officers and a Kansas City Association was also effected. Both these societies are now in good working order. Thus do the States of Missouri and Kansas join hands. The traveling and other expenses of this series of conventions amounted to $541.13. By collections and contributions the sum of $666.32 was raised. The municipal elections followed the close of this series of meetings. This was our "off year" election, when no mayors were elected except in the third-class cities. In these last the aggregate election interest stood at its usual degree. The average vote of women gained over that in all previous elections. In a few of these cities only one ticket was presented, and in the case of some these no women and few men voted. In three third-class cities and in one second-class city the women's vote exceeded that of the men. In the first and second-class cities the vote of both men and women fell off, as it always does, in the "off year," but the vote of the women was not below that of the preceding MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 71 "off year." There was nothing to indicate any decadence of woman suffrage in Kansas. There were new voters among women; more women in the caucuses, more influence of women in the election of candidates. Unfortunately we can report no cessation of the complaints about the difficulty of securing sound official timber. To get the right quality of men to consent to be voted for is our huge difficulty. The people who say that municipal women suffrage has no apparent effect on city government are generally men on the outside, who, without real knowledge of the work done by the women, the things they have brought to pass, stand and look for this small measure of woman suffrage to bring in the millennium, though full manhood suffrage has not even yet, after a century of practice, proved itself a success. In the election of next April party lines will doubtless be more sharply drawn than ever before, or at least since women were admitted to municipal elections, and women will not generally ignore party lines as heretofore, except in the instances in which good and bad character will be contrasted in candidates. Character in candidates remains a matter of importance in the minds of women voters, and the stress they put upon this matter is not without its effect upon public sentiment. This, notwithstanding, I feel sure party affiliation is good for women, and our women are coming into closer relation with political organizations; yet there appears to be no probability that we shall lose the safeguard which a body of conservative, non-partisan municipal voters furnishes. We are in swift process of evolution, which many people find disturbing, and of which they are afraid; but there's no reason for fear. There was much the same feeling about the Declaration of Independence. In the middle of the year we held a two-days suffrage conference at the Chautauqua Assembly at Ottawa. Here were held discussions, plans were made, and large audiences addressed by Miss Anthony and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw. We felt that in those days great good was accomplished. From Ottawa Miss Anthony went to our capital city, where was assembled the Republican State nominating convention. She was accompanied by Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins, Mrs. May Belleville-Brown, and Laura M. Johns, officers of the State suffrage association. A member moved that these ladies, with Mrs. Amanda Way and Mother Bickerdyke, be given seats on the floor and on motion Miss Anthony was invited to address the convention, and was conducted to the speaker's stand amid ringing cheers. Her well-chosen words were the first ever addressed to a Kansas Republican State convention 72 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. by a woman. Her remarks were received with enthusiasm. Miss Anthony and the aforementioned ladies were accorded a courteous hearing before the committee on resolutions, the result of which was a plank favoring the submission of an amendment to our constitution providing for the enfranchisement of women. This plank was the same which appeared in the Republican platform of 1882. The same demand had been made a few weeks earlier in the platform of the People's party. Both these conventions had received those platform utterances with storms of applause. When the Republican State Central Committee held its first meeting the president of the State Suffrage Association appeared before said committee and suggested the propriety of utilizing the speaking power and enthusiasm of women in the approaching campaign. Miss Anthony, Mrs. T. J. Smith and Mrs. Johns were invited to make addresses under the auspices of the Republican State Central Committee, which they accordingly did, and were the first to do so in this State. It is well known that the participation of women in political campaigns is nothing new. Women have always spoken in the State for the Prohibition and People's parties, but never before for the Republicans, though the last named called women into their campaign in other States as early as 1861. The pending questions and relations of the parties on the political checkerboard of Kansas, the fact of the utterance of the two great parties on our question, the strong sentiment in favor of woman's ballot, out political enfranchisement and the educational effect thereof, all pointed with such directness toward the submission of a woman suffrage amendment that we entered out State annual meeting with a strong sense of the importance of steps taken by the association at this time. We had been oppressed by the thought of the possibility of a constitutional convention, but that proposition was voted down. Nevertheless a suffrage campaign is found to be imminent, for the submission of an amendment to strike out the word "male" is probably a foregone conclusion. Both parties are committed to such action. The result will be a struggle, a two-years campaign, the most thorough organization ever effected, canvassing and recanvassing. We entreat our friends everywhere to rally to our support. It is not our fight alone. The fate of woman suffrage all over the United States is involved. We shall do our utmost with our own State material, but help must come from our sister States. Consider the significance of the result of this struggle here, and in view of the far-reaching influence thereof give us the best and most of your help. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 73 THE PRESIDNET: We have not a Congressman or a Senator to speak for us to-night, but we have a Congressman's daughter, and that is a great deal. We have not only a Congressman's daughter from Kansas, but also a Congressman's wife, Mrs. Otis, of Kansas, who will add a word. I remember the first time when we came to Washington, twenty-five years ago, how hard we worked to get one Congressman and another or a Senator to speak for us. We did finally succeed in getting one as far as the ante-room of the hall, but we couldn't get him any farther. Now we have them come and speak on our platform every little while, and not only that, but their daughters and their wives as well. Mrs. OTIS: I want to say to you to-night that through your influence and that of other women who have brought forward our cause in political campaigns I think I but voice the sentiments of the women of our beloved Kansas when I say that at no very distant day the women of Kansas will enjoy the privileges of the ballot. I would also say that I expect to see you live until another star is planted on that banner to represent Kansas. That star will be placed by the side of Wyoming. Mrs. GREENLEAF, N. Y.: I want to say that when the Kansas Star is placed by the side of Wyoming we will have New York in the other corner. The PRESIDENT: There is another Congressman's wife you see; she is a Democratic Congressman's wife, too. Now, friends, to-day and this evening we have had here that beautiful face and that beautiful Quaker cap on that side [referring to a marble bust on the stage,] and over here we have that beautiful face and those beautiful curls [referring to a bust on the other side of the stage], and perhaps some of you don't quite know whom they represent. I want to say to you that they stand for the two women who first thought of holding a Woman's Rights Convention, to make a demand for the political equality of woman. These two women, in 1840, while attending the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where all the men were shouting for the emancipation of the slaves on our plantations, but would not allow that saintly Quaker, Lucretia Mott, to speak for freedom, resolved to 74 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. call a Woman's Right Convention on their return home. And in July, 1848, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton held the first Woman's convention ever held in the world ; and when they wrote their resolutions they found that women had nineteen grievances against man's government, the same number that the Revolutionary fathers found against old King George. We have here the artist who molded from clay these beautiful figures, and these are not all the figures she has molded. I want you to look at them and then I want you to look at the artist. Here Miss ANTHONY brought Miss JOHNSON forward and presented her to the audience, and she was received with hearty applause. I sat for her and she made a little sort of something out of clay for me. I wouldn't let her bring that here not because I am timid, but I didn't want to let you look at me and the marble at the same time - the contrast would be too great and I was too wise for that. So I had her bring dear Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Miss Johnson has been in Chicago, and there Dr. Thomas has sat for her, and she has made a bust of him, which his wife declares is perfect ; and when a woman sees her husband in marble and is satisfied, it is something wonderful. She has also made a bust of Mrs. Logan. When I saw it I thought it could speak. This little woman undertook, without a dollar, to make these three busts, and they are made, and you see two of them. In the city of Rochester, where I have lived forty-five or forty-seven years [laughter], or may be fifty- that wouldn't make me very old- men and women, who have never been heard to say a word of sympathy for the suffrage movement, as well as the friends of suffrage, put their heads together and collected enough to pay at least the cash cost to Miss Johnson for making the bust of their fellow citizen. I hope the friends of suffrage everywhere, when they look at these two busts, will say to themselves: "We will make contributions and will help to pay her something for the year's work which she has expended." Mrs. Jane H. Spofford, of 1412 G street, is the treasurer of the bust fund, and Mrs. Greenleaf, of Rochester, is president of the fund, and Mrs. Banker, of Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York, is the other member. Any one of these three women will be very glad to take anything you want to give to them. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 75 Someone in the audience moved that Miss Anthony's bust be placed on the platform. I have been pretty well "busted" the last year. There is a man in New York who has made one ; there is a man in Chicago who has made one, and a little girl in Cleveland made one that is in marble and now in the Power's Gallery in Rochester. All four of these will be in Chicago next summer, and you must go there and see whether two girls can outdo two men. I have the pleasure now of introducing to you Rachel Foster Avery, who is the Corresponding Secretary, not only of our National Suffrage Association, but also of the National Council of Women ; and more than that, she has been appointed Secretary of The World's Congress of Representative Women by Mrs. Potter Palmer, the President of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Fair. Mrs. AVERY then spoke on the best time to visit the World's Fair, which she said would be during the Congress of Representative Women, May 15-22. Miss ANTHONY spoke tenderly of the speaker, who, ten years ago as Rachel Foster, had been eyes and ears to her on a European trip, and to whom she owed the cognomen "Aunt Susan." Miss ANTHOONY: Let me introduce to you Mary S. Lockwood, of this city, who is member-at-large of the Board of Lady Managers. She is delegated by Mrs. Palmer, the president of the board, to represent her on this occasion. Mrs. LOCKWOOD read a carefully prepared paper upon "The Work of the Board of Lady Managers." Miss ANTHONY: You are now to listen to Mrs. Havens, of Washington. Mrs. HAVEN'S essay on the "Girl of the Future" was so humorous that there was a ripple of laughter in the audience all the time, and periodically this burst forth so as to oblige the reader to stop. At the close she was long and loudly applauded. 76 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION Miss ANTHONY : I am sorry to announce that Lillie Devereux Blake is detained by important business, and I wish to add that this is the first time in twenty-five years Mrs. Blake has ever failed to meet an engagement with me. I know you will all be disappointed not to hear Mrs. Blake, but you have been longing and begging to hear Mrs. Eastman again, and she has kindly consented to speak this evening. Mrs. EASTMAN made an argument that men and women must work side by side for the uplifting of humanity. _______ WEDNESDAY, January 18, 1893. _______ MORNING SESSION. The first hour was taken up with usual business and reading of State reports. The PRESIDENT: The remainder of our morning will be devoted to Southern work. LAURA CLAY, Ky.: Last year your assciation appointed a committee on such work, the presidents of the seven auxiliary States forming that committee-Laura Clay, Kentucky; Lide Meriwether, Tennessee; H. Augusta Howard, Georgia; Caroline E. Merrick, Louisiana; Clara A. McDiarmid, Arkansas; Virginia L. Minor, Missouri; Caroline Hallowell Miller, Maryland. Later, on account of a change of officers in Missouri, Mrs. Virginia Hedges was substituted in place of Mrs. Virginia L. Minor. Laura Clay was made chairman. At the temporary meeting it was decided to confine the principal effort for the year in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. The committee wrote to Mrs. C. J. Hillbreth, Jennie Bland Beauchamp and Virginia D. Young, vice-presidents appointed MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 77 by the N. A. W. S. A. for Alabama, Texas and South Carolina, urging co-operation and organization and received favorable replies from all. Mrs. Hildreth answered that she was very glad suffrage work was to be prosecuted in Alabama, and that she could arrange for a speaker at New Decatur and probably at other places. Mrs. Mary McGee Snell wrote that she was crowded with work, but her heart was so much in the suffrage cause that she would take the place as leader until she could secure some one else. She recommended the flooding of the Woman's Christian Temperance Unions with suffrage literature, also writing personal letters urging co-operation. She was certain that more than six places would prepare for a suffrage speaker. She though articles written for the press would help, and mentioned a number of papers to which to send such articles. At Mrs. Snell's suggestion the chairman wrote to other ladies in Mississippi. Mrs. Snell has been distributing literature and has also spoken for suffrage in her prohibition speeches. Mrs. Jennie Bland Beauchamp wrote encouragingly of the suffrage prospects in Texas, but resigned the position of vice-president, as she intended to remove from the State in a month. Mrs. Virginia D. Young wrote: "You never were more welcome to any heart than you are to mine. Not having seen you I've been longing to know you, and you have come to me at a kind of crisis, for I've been resolved to work on this very line without help of any sort. In answer to your first question, the best help just now will be communication by letter, so as to establish the freemasonry of a perfect understanding among us. Second question: While I greatly desire the State to be canvassed by a speaker, I think we had better be organized first." She also thought literature ought to be freely distributed, and had already commenced doing it. She promised to go at once to work organizing the South Carolina Equal Rights Association and the suffrage papers have made known how eminently she has succeeded. The committee voted a donation of $10 (ten dollars) to H. Augusta Howard for Georgia, to Mrs. Hildreth for Alabama, to Mrs. Snell for Mississippi, and to Mrs. Merrick for Louisiana. It also voted that the Woman's Chronicle should be sent free to each member of the committee who was not already taking it, so as to form a means of communication on matters no important enough for a circular letter. This action has not yet, however, been carried out. The chairman had personal communication with the vice-president appointed for Virginia, and this, with the written communica- 78 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION tion described, complete the list of the States for which the National American Woman Suffrage Association had appointed vice-presidents. Sickness and pressing business cut short the labors of the chairman in the committee. The work reported was comprised in less than three months, and yet organizations in two States were the reward to the committee. It is only reasonable to suppose that nine months more of work would have been rewarded by suffrage association in every one of the remaining six unorganized Southern States. The finances of the committee consisted of the following donations: Ten dollars from Mrs. E. L. Mason, of Brookline, Mass. This, by vote of the committee, was sent by Miss Clay to the Georgia association before the election of the treasurer. In March the chairman published an appeal for donations in the Woman's Journal, and Mrs. Susan Look Avery, of Louisville, Ky., sent twenty-five dollars. In April Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery forwarded fifty dollars which she had donated the previous year to Southern work, but which had never been drawn. These last two sums were placed in the hands of the treasurer of the committee, Mrs. McDiarmid, and are accounted for in her report. Besides these $85 the committee received $5 worth of franked reports of the Senate hearing from the chairman, and a handsome contribution of literature, distributed in the South by the National American Woman Suffrage Association through Mrs. Upton, for which this opportunity is taken to return thanks. The committee starts in the work of the new year with forty-five dollars in its treasury. The chairman has had personal interviews with suffragists from Virginia, Texas and Florida, and has written and received answers to more than fifty letters. All the evidence indicates that in every Southern State there exists sufficient suffrage sentiment to organize. But after an organization is effected, affording an instrument for economical and judicious expenditure of money, a lecturer should be sent when there is a call for one, and it is necessary that a very large part of the expenses of the lectures should be donated, for it is impossible in many cases for these new and weak organizations to raise the necessary funds themselves. At the present time there are particularly two States in the southern field -- Arkansas and Louisiana -- which need the help of a lecturer, sent free of expense to the State association, and three others -- Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia -- where such a lecturer could be very usefully sent. Is it too much to hope that this convention will not close without several hundred dollars being secured for this most important field. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 79 This report was followed by an address written by Orra Langhorn, of Virginia, and read by her niece, Henderson Dangerfield. Miss Dangerfield endeared herself to the members of the Convention by her gracious manner and earnestness. Her address, with all other addresses, will be found in the Woman's Tribune. Miss Clay: I am not one of those who think money is the first essential in a cause. The work is so undeveloped in the South that much of it is conjecture. In the last few years it has dawned upon me, and I am confirmed by many that the South is our most hopeful field. * * * Every step for woman suffrage in the North has been antagonized. You have conquered, but the antagonism has remained and still remains. The question has not been agitated in the South, and therefore the South is a fallow field. In the South we have nearly a pure Anglo-Saxon population, and there we recognize the truths that there must be no taxation without representation and that just governments derive their power from the consent of the governed. I myself was startled when Mrs. Young said that if two hundred women would sign a woman suffrage petition it would be given to them. Two years ago the National declared that we should concentrate our efforts on South Dakota, and I was one that voted for it and spared my two dollars to send to South Dakota. Before the campaign was half over we had such an opportunity as we had never had and perhaps never will be presented again. Some of our leaders almost worked themselves to death in South Dakota, and in Mississippi not a finger was raised except the Mississippi Association, and two-fifths of the constitutional convention declared in favor of woman suffrage. I made a resolve never again will I divert my attention from the South until we are organized there so as to seize our opportunities. Let us never be deceived that way again. Since we claim to be national let us never forget that the South cannot be left out of our calculations. You have worked for forty years and you will work for forty years more and do nothing unless you bring in the South. Mrs. Chamberlain, Fla: I want to say that when the Southern woman makes up her mind she ought to vote she'll vote, for she has always done exactly what she believes to be her duty. Just teach her what is her duty and she'll do it. 80 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mrs. Southworth, Ohio : This thought has come to me since Miss Clay's speech, that perhaps the South is far ahead of us in the Northern and Western States, because since the war it has been in a condition of reconstruction. Mrs. Chamberlain, Fla. : It seems to me to be in a state of construction. The President : If our forty-year old societies do not set about their work I am afraid we will soon have the banner State south of Mason and Dixon's line. Wednesday Afternoon The first half-hour of the afternoon was devoted to State reports. Mrs. Avery, Pa., then read a communication from the Committee on Dress of the National Council of Women. Miss Gillette announced that the National Woman Suffrage Association has been incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia. The corporators are Susan B. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, and Lucia E. Blount. Form of Bequest. * I give and bequeath to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a body corporate, incorporated under the general incorporation law in force in the District of Columbia, the sum of -------- dollars. (Signed) ------ ------- The hour having arrived for the election of officers, the President called the Vice-President-at-Large to the chair. Mrs. Upton read the report of the Committee on Credentials: *Miss Anthony hopes that all the suffrage editors will keep the above form of bequest standing in their paper. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 81 Final Report of the Committee on Credentials (including Number of Delegates Present, together with the Amount of Fees Paid.) State. Entitled. Present. Fees paid. Alabama 5 0 $1 50 Arkansas 5 1 5 00 Mary A. Davis California 5 1 2 00 Nellie Holbrook Blynn Colorado 5 1 3 00 B. R. Owens Connecticut 5 4 12 40 Sarah Winthrop Smith Mary J. Rogers Rose I. Blakeslee S. E. Browne District of Columbia 5 5 4 60 Helen Rand Tindall Emma M. Gillette Lucy S. Doolittle Mary L. Bennett M. S. Edgar Florida 5 1 1 00 Ella C. Chamberlain Georgia 5 3 1 10 H. Augusta Howard Miriam Howard DuBose Sarah Freeman Clarke Illinois 11 2 60 00 Lizzie F. Long Mary I. Barnes Indiana 5 1 4 00 Alice Waugh Iowa 10 1 52 20 Nettie Sanford Chapin Kansas 7 5 20 00 Martha Powell Davis Anna A. Broderick Jennie Broderick Bina A. Otis Josephine L. Patton Kentucky 6 2 10 00 Laura Clay Dr. Sarah M. Siewers Louisiana 5 0 6 60 Maine 6 2 10 00 Hannah J. Bailey Elizabeth U. Yates Maryland 5 4 4 20 Mary Bently Thomas Sarah T. Miller Caroline H. Miller Mary F. Moore 6 w s 82 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION State. Entitled. Present. Fees paid. MASSACHUSETTS 13 4 $89 30 Henry B. Blackwell. Ellen B. Dietrick. Hannah Hall. Esther F. Boland. Massachusetts - NATIONAL 5 1 4 10 Lavina A. Hatch. MICHIGAN 5 1 20 00 Olivia B. Hall. MINNESOTA 5 0 7 00 MISSOURI 6 1 13 50 Virginia L. Minor. NEBRASKA 6 5 10 00 Clara B. Colby. Esther L Warner. Rachel Brill Mary H. Williams. Clara Cross. NEW HAMPSHIRE. 5 1 1 30 Marilla M. Ricker. NEW JERSEY 5 4 2 70 Dr. Mary D. Hussey. Phoebe C. Wright. Louise Downs Quigley. Jennie D. DeWitt. NEW YORK 19 16 143 50 Jeannie Brooks Greenleaf. Harriet May Mills. Emily Howland. Henrietta M. Banker. Etta E. Hooker. Ruby Abby. Lucy S. Pierce. J. Mary Pearson Mary S. Anthony T. J. Skidmore. Marian Skidmore. Abigail A. Allen. Isabel Howland. Cornelia K. Hood. Cornelia H. Carey. Charlotte Cleveland. OHIO 11 9 63 30 Martha H. Elwell. Louisa Southworth. Rosa L. Segur. Claudia Q. Murphy. Martha P. Dana. Eliza P. Houk. Emma C. Hayes. Margaret Hackadorne. Emma Harley: OREGON 5 0 2 00 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 83 State. Entitled. Present. Fees paid. PENNSYLVANIA 8 7 33 40 Lucretia L. Blankenburg Agnes Kemp Mary P. Beaver Jane Campbell Lucy E. Anthony Bertha W. Howe Margaret B. Stone. RHODE ISLAND 5 0 11 20 SOUTH CAROLINA 5 0 1 60 SOUTH DAKOTA 5 1 5 00 Alice M. A. Pickler. TENNESSEE 5 0 2 70 UTAH 15 0 102 00 VERMONT 6 2 17 30 A. D. Chandler. Eliza S. Eaton VIRGINIA 5 5 1 20 Etta Grymes Farrar. Orra Langhorne. Anna M. Snowden. Henderson Dangerfield. Nina Cross. The Convention then proceeded to the election of officers. MRS. HOOD, N. Y.; MISS HOWARD, Ga.; Mrs. HOWE, Pa.; MRS. DUBOSE, Ga., were tellers. With no delay the following were elected: Honorary Presidents, ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, LUCY STONE. President, SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Rochester, N. Y. Vice-President-at-Large, Rev. ANNA H. SHAW, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary, RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Boston, Mass. Treasurer, HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Warren, Ohio. Auditors, MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, ELLEN BATTELLE DIETRICK. 84 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION After the unanimous election of Miss Anthony as President she was brought back to the room by Olivia B. Hall and Rosa L. Segur, and was given the Chautauqua salute and deafening applause. Ellen B. Dietrick, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, read the following : Wheras, morality is better taught by example than precept, and the action of a government is a more powerful guide towards truth and honesty than any of its professions ; and Whereas, the United States Government is at present based upon the profession that it is a government of the people, though half the people are actually excluded from government ; therefore Resolved, That in the interests of public morality, we denounce the United States Government in its present position, as a practical teacher of dishonesty, and call upon all legislators to enfranchise women as the first step towards redeeming the sacred promises of the founders of our government to the people. Resolved, That the National American Woman Suffrage Association is non-partisan, and appeals to the enlightened men of all parties to do justice to women citizens as a plain matter of fidelity to the principles upon which our National Government is professedly founded. Resolved, That without expressing any opinion on the proper qualifications for voting, we call attention to the significant facts that in every State there are more women who can read and write than all the illiterate male voters ; more white women who can read and write than all negro voters ; more American women who can read and write than all foreign voters ; so that the enfranchisement of such women would settle the vexed question of rule by illiteracy, whether of home-grown or foreign-born production. Whereas, a constitutional convention has been called in the State of New York in 1894 ; and Whereas two Governors in succession -- Governor Hill and Governor Flower -- have recommended in their annual message that the woman suffrage organization should be represented by two women as delegates ; therefore Resolved, That we express the thanks of this convention to Governor Hill and Governor Flower for that recognition of justice due women ; and MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 85 Resolved further, That all possible effort be directed towards an immediate educational campaign in the State of New York as preparation for the general election in November next, at which time the delegates will be chosen. Whereas, within the next two years the question of full suffrage for women will probably be submitted to the male voters of Kansas ; and Whereas the largest proportion of non-organized States is now found in the South -- Resolved, That we turn an especial portion of energy and educational effort towards Kansas and the Southern States. Resolved, That we recommend to all suffrage societies the advisability of procuring popular consideration of the principles we advocate by means of debates in the high schools, colleges, literary societies, young men's and women's Christian associations, women's clubs, etc., in their respective localities. Resolved,That as all experience proves that the rights of the laboring man are best preserved in governments where he has possession of the ballot, we therefore demand on behalf of the laboring woman the same powerful instrument that she may herself protect her own interests, and that we urge all organized bodies of working women, whether they be workers in the field of philanthropy, education, trade, manufacture, or general industry, to join our association in the endeavor to make woman legally and politically a free agent as the best means for furthering any and every line of woman's work. Resolved, That in all States possessing school suffrage for woman, suffragists are advised to organize in each representative district thereof, for the purpose of training and stimulating women voters to exercise regularly the right of suffrage on this question, using it as a preparatory school for the coming work of full-grown citizenship with an unlimited ballot. And we also advise that women everywhere work for the election of an equal number of women and men upon school boards, that the State in taking upon itself the education of children may provide them with as many official mothers as there are fathers. Whereas many forms of woman suffrage may be granted by State legislatures without change in existing constitutions; therefore Resolved, That the suffragists in every State should petition for municipal and Presidential suffrage by statute, and take every practicable step toward securing such legislation. Resolved, That we recommend suffrage societies to subscribe for all the several suffrage papers now published in different 86 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. States, to be used in each local and State headquarters, as a most necessary means in increasing fellowship and furnishing a channel of communication between the suffrage workers throughout the country. Resolved, That as the education of women is the entering wedge to equal pay for equal work in all professions, the thanks of this convention are tendered Miss Garrett, of Bal- timore, for her noble furthering of our principles in making it possible for women to enter the John Hopkins Medical College upon equal terms with men, and that we also call the attention of women of wealth to the great need of making provision for the entrance of their sex into all other institu- tions which possess superior facilities for mental training. Resolved, That this association send an expression of its sincere gratitude to Jane H. Spofford for her long and unsel- fish service as its treasurer, and to both Jane R. Spofford and C. W. Spofford for their generous hospitality extended to the association throughout the many seasons during which the Riggs House was its home. Resolved, That the thanks of this convention are gratfully given to the Suffrage Association of the District of Columbia and to the Congressional and local committees for the many courtesies extended to delegates and visitors, and to the Press for its encouraging reports of the suffrage work, and to the railroads for reduced rates. Resolved, That the thanks of this association are due to Governor Flower, of New York, for his recognition of women's ability in the appointment to a State office of our President, Susan B. Anthony, namely, as a member of the Board of Managers of New York State Industrial School at Rochester. *Resolved, That the thanks of this association are extended to Senator Warren, of Wyoming, for presenting to the U. S. Senate a majority report from the committee of suffrage. *Resolved, That this association thank the Hon. Jno. Clark, of Wyoming, for introducing into the first session of the 52d Congress the Federal Suffrage bill, which provides for the protection of all United States citizens in their right to vote for members of Congress. *Resolved, That we rejoice in the rapid growth of work in the Southern States. *Resolved, That we urge all women to enter protest, at the time of paying taxes, at being compelled to submit to tax- ation without representation. _________________________________________________________________ *These resolutions were added later, but for convenience of reader are inserted here. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 87 Whereas the Constitution of the United States promises non-interference with the religious liberty of the people; and Whereas, Congress is now threatening to abridge the liber- ties of all in response to ecclesiastical dictation from a por- tion of the people---- Resolved, That this association enters a protest against any national attempt to control the innocent inclinations of the people either on the Jewish Sabbath or the Christian Sunday, and this we do quite irrespective of our individual opinions as to the sanctity of Sunday. Resolved, That we especially protest against this present attempt to force all the people to follow the religious dictates of a part of the people as establishing a precedent for the entrance of a most dangerous complicity between Church and State, thereby subtly undermining the foundation of liberty, so carefully laid by the wisdom of our fathers. These resolutions were passed with the exception of the first and last. Mrs. SEGUR, Ohio, moved the adoption of the last. Miss CLAY, Kentucky, moved to lay it on the table. Mrs. UPTON, Ohio, seconded Miss CLAY's motion. Mrs. SEGUR, Ohio, called for the ayes and nays. The PRESIDENT stated that a similar resolution was presented and tabled last year without discussion. Miss CLAY, Kentucky, corrected Miss ANTHONY, say- ing the matter was discussed two hours and with- drawn. Miss ANTHONY: The chair stands corrected. The question now before you is on the tabling of the resolution. On this the roll will be called. Those voting in the affirmative were --- Bailey, Barnes, Blackwell, Blackwell (A. S.,) Blackeslee, Chamberlain, Clay, Cleveland, Davis (Mary A.,) Dennis, Gillette, Hall (Hannah,) Howe, Hussey, Long, Pickler, Quigley, Stone, Siewers, Up- ton, Waugh, Wright and Yates ---- 23 yeas. Negative --- Anthony, Anthony (M. S.,) Anthony (L. E.,) Avery, Banker, Beaver, Bennett, Blackenberg, Boland, Bro- derick, Broderick (Jennie,) Blynn, Brill, Brown, Carey, Chapin, Cleveland, Cross, Davis (Martha P.,) Dietrick, De Witt, Doolittle, Du Bose, Edgar, Elwell, Greenleaf, Hacka- 78 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. donre, Hall (Olivia,) Hatch, Hood, Howard, Howland, Howland (Isabel,) Kemp, Mills, Moore, Murphy, Otis, Patton, Pierce, Ricker, Rogers, Shaw, Segur, Skidmore, Smith, Southworth, Tindall, and Thomas - 50 nays. The President: The question is now on the adoption of the resolution. Mrs. Dietrick argued that this question was germane to the association. Miss Clay called for the reading of Article 2 of the constitution, and afterwards argued that the consideration was not in accordance with the constitution. A five-minute rule was adopted. Mrs Cleveland, N. J.: Move we adjourn. Mrs. Quigley, N. J.: I love that this question be made the subject of discussion to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock. Rev. Anna H. Shaw: I move to amend by making it 10:30 o'clock. The motion as amended was agreed to and the Convention adjourned. Wednesday Evening. Miss Anthony introduced Miss Marble, who gave a mandolin solo, with piano accompaniment by her brother, with the remark that, "You all know Mrs. Marble, and now the daughters are coming up to do the work of their mothers." The selection was heartily applauded. Mary H. Williams, Neb., chairman of the Committee on Governors' Opinions, the read her report. Miss Williams: I have to present to you to-night a new line of work which was placed in my hands a year ago. Last April I sent a letter to the Governors of our States and Territories asking each to MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 89 reply yes or no to the following questions. These were the same questions the Congressional Committee sent to members of Congress: Are you willing that women should vote on exactly the same terms as men? Are you willing to vote for an amendment to the Constitution giving to all citizens the right to vote in 1896, both male and female, who can read and write the English language? Are you willing that women shall vote, provided there is for them an educational qualification? Are you willing that women shall vote in the municipal elections? Are you willing that women shall vote in all school matters? Are you willing that women shall vote under any conditions? To forty-nine letters sent out I received twenty-one replies - Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Alaska. Of these, eight were in favor of granting the right of suffrage only ; two were absent from home, and three only were opposed, and the others made various replies. Eleven were from Republicans, nine from Democrats. Most of them are very brief. Governor Barber, Wyoming, answered yes to all the questions, and adds: "My experience leads me to believe that women should be permitted to vote upon the same terms and conditions and to the same extent that men are permitted to vote." Governor Routte, of Colorado: "I am in favor of women voting upon exact equality with men." Governor Melette, of South Dakota, says: "I believe in women suffrage on the same basis as man." Governor Winans, of Michigan, the only Democrat who is wholly in favor, replies yes to the question, "Are you willing women should vote on exactly the same terms as men?" and adds: "This covers all." Governor Thomas, of Utah, replies: "Yes, if the same conditions apply to men," but says no to the questions implying an educational qualification for either or both. From Gov. Robert J. Reynolds, of Delaware, I received the following: "The matter you write to me about is one I have never given sufficient though to answer as you desire. 90 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. You will, therefore, allow me to simply say I am yours respectfully, etc." From Ohio and Minnesota came acknowledgments of the receipts of my letter by the private secretary of each governor. saying that "His excellency was absent from the city, but immediately upon his return his attention would be called to the matter." Doubtless these two governors are still wandering abroad, as they have not yet made reply. The private secretary of Governor Russell, of Massachusetts, writes: "your favor of April 2d has been received at this office and will be referred to his excellency the governor for his consideration. He is constantly receiving everyday requests for his opinion upon various public matters. It is impossible to meet such requests. As a rule, therefore, whenever he desires to express his opinion upon public questions, he does it through some public speech or address." Not yet or address by Governor Russel on this subject, I am still ignorant of his views, and must leave you in the same ignorance. Governor Tillman, of South Carolina, would grant school suffrage only. Governor Willis, of Idaho, consents to women voting only on school matters and makes no comment. Governor Burke, of North Dakota, answers yes to all the questions except the one, "Are you willing that women shall vote under any conditions?" To that he replies: "No; neither that men shall." The inference seems to be that he desires an educational qualification for all. Governor Boyd, of Nebraska, the only Democratic governor the State ever had and so near a foreigner the his election to the office was contested because his father had not properly naturalized, opposes the extension of suffrage to women, on the goring that their place is at home, politics would degrade them, etc., but is willing to allow them to vote at school elections. Governor Stone, of Mississippi, and Gov. A. B. Fleming, of West Virginia reply, "No," to each of the questions without comment. Gov. Thomas M. Holt, of North Carolina, replies to the questions in the negative and adds: "I am utterly opposed to woman suffrage in any shape or form. I have a wife and three daughters, all married, who are as much opposed to women going into politics as I am, and they reflex the sentiment of our Southern women generally." MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 91 We all know that the spelling of the English language is often a stumbling-block, even to otherwise well-educated people, and for this reason it is well to throw the mantle over any small slip, but I cannot forbear saying that as this distinguished gentle man writes the word suffrage, we need not feel so depressed as we otherwise might at his opposition. Governor Page, of Vermont, writes: "The question of woman suffrage has never agitated the people of Vermont very extensively. So far as my own knowledge goes, I think the voters of Vermont generally are quite liberal in their views on this subject. On more than one occasion they have shown by their votes in our legislature that they are willing to accord the right of suffrage to women whenever they shall ask for it with any substantial degree of unanimity. But I think a close canvass of the intelligent, educated women of Vermont to-day would disclose the fact that not over 25 per cent. of them desire or ask that the elective franchise should be conferred upon them. Another 25 per cent. are indifferent, while at least 50 per cent. are positively and unqualifiedly opposed. If I am correct in my diagnosis of the case, you will confess, I am sure, that it is not time to apply the remedy which your association offers." Governor Humphrey, of Kansas write as follows: "I was in the State senate several years ago, and advocated and voters for the law which permits women to vote at municipal elections in Kansas, and have never has any occasion to change my opinion as to the wisdom or justice of such a measure. Women have for many years in Kansas voted in school matters. Personally, I can see no reason why women should not be permitted to vote in all cases on substantially the same conditions as men, coupled in some way with the proviso that they should in that even be compelled in some way to exercise the privilege. It is both a privilege and duty as well; a duty, I may say, too often neglected by men." Governor Colcord, of Nevada, writes: "I believe that all intelligent, educated citizens, who can read, write and speak the English language, should be entitled to vote at any and all elections. This, I believe, answers all of your questions. But as to the advisability 'under the present local laws of most of out States.' of granting this privilege to women, I am somewhat in doubt. I would say, without hesitation, yes, if I could have a reasonable assurance that the good women of the country would vote, but so far as my own observation goes, a very large majority of our best and must cultured women, in different parts of the country where I have investigated, are willing to become electors in theory but not 92 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. in practice. In which case, would not the giving of the ballot to women result in adding the votes of the ignorant and vicious women to those of the same class of men, which would create a power, 'especially in large cities,' with unscrupulous leaders, too great to ever be overcome by the honest voters? In answer to this I presume you will refer to the school election in Boston two years ago, but it must be remembered that in that case the question of religion only was involved, a subject in which women are more deeply interested than men, and one which always brings them to the front to assert their rights; but politics in my opinion, should have no connection whatever with religious matters." Governor Knapp, of Alaska, looks at the matter in a different light. Governor Colcord believes it right, but doubts the expediency. Governor Knapp says: "I have long recognized the expediency, and consequently an obligation of conferring voting privileges upon women in all cases where the issues involve social, moral or educational questions, and am unable to foresee any evil or dangers likely to result form the exercise by them of the electoral franchise in any case of practical politics." Gov. F. P. Fleming, of Florida, states that he is "not in favor of woman's voting in National, State or municipal elections," giving nine reasons therefor. These nine reasons are among the old sentimental objections, which are so familiar, which sound so fine and chivalrous to the timid, but which are so impracticable, and which disappear in the test of experience like the shadows of night before the morning sun. He says that in the economy of neater women are frequently incapacitated to take that active participation in politics with the right of suffrage involves; that "if she were an active participant, the excitement of politics would in certain conditions tend to serious injury to herself and her offspring;" that "the home duties of the average woman, if she gives them such attention as she should, would prevent an active participation in politics;" that, "being more readily influenced by impulse and feeling than man, the excitement of the political contest would stir up the passions and feelings of man so as to unfit her for the high position household, and greatly impair her influence for good therein;" that ' the excitement of the political contest and the mixing therein, with the irritation incident thereto, would tend to detract from that modest purity of mind which is the crowning jewel of true womanhood;" that "in the South ladies of refinement would shrink from going to the polls, where MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 93 they would have to come in contact with indiscriminate crowds of whites and negros, so that it would result principally in the exercise of the right by the negro women in this section of the country;" that "in any part of the country to mix with the indiscriminate crowds of all classes which usually attend polling places would tend to detract from the refinement and delicacy of woman, which is one of her chief attraction;" that he" has no reason to believe that good would result from the bestowal of the right of suffrage upon woman;" that he believes "that ninety-nine out of every hundred of the intelligent people in this section of the country are opposed to woman suffrage." Governor Fleming concludes by saying: "The above objections would not as a rule apply to church or school elections, and as women are usually much more pious than men and take more interest in church matters, I am inclined to think it would be well for them to vote at church elections, and am not aware fo any particular objection to their voting at school elections." We would respectfully recommend this option to the consideration of the Methodist conference. Mrs. BLYNN, of California, recited a poem --"Old Glory" Mr. BLACKWELL read a letter from LUCY STONE: OFFICE OF THE WOMAN'S JOURNAL, NO.3 PARK STREET, BOSTON, JAN 14, 1893. Wherever woman suffragists are gathered together in the name of Equal Rights these are always in spirit with them. All the same my personal glasswork greeting foes to everyone; to those who have borne the heart and burden of the day, and to the strong, brave, younger workers who have come to lighter the load and to complete the victory. We may surely rejoice now when there are so many gains won and cancelled, and when favorable indications are on every hand. The way before us is shorter than that behind. But the work still calls for patient perseverance and ceaseless endeavor. The end is not yet in sight, but it cannot be far away. LUCY STONE. CARRIE LANE CHAPMAN gave an address on "Comparisons are Odious." She was often interrupted by applause and heartily cheered at the close. 94 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION Miss Yates followed with some interesting experiences, which she gave in a very captivating manner. Miss Anthony, in closing the session, read the governor's certificate appointing her to the office of manager of the State Industrial School. The best of it was that the appointee was referred to as "him". This was a good point for Miss Anthony, who has always insisted that if the masculine pronoun is good enough to send a woman to jail or to the gallows, it is good enough for her to vote and hold office by. THURSDAY, January 19, 1893. MORNING SESSION. After the regular opening business Miss Yates, Me.: I move that a responsive greeting be sent to Lucy Stone. Motion adopted. Mrs. Dietrick, Mass.: I move that a responsive greeting be also sent to Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Motion also adopted. Mrs. Upton, of Ohio, read a partial report of the Treasurer. [*The report publishes elsewhere is the report of Jane H Spofford, and includes receipts and expenditure for the year 1892, except the month of December. That month will be included in next year's report.*] Mrs. Bailey moved that the report of the Treasurer be accepted with thanks, and that hereafter the Treasurer's book shall be closed January 1st, and dues sent after that shall not be reported until the following year. Mrs. Avery, Pa.: We will never be able to enforce that rule unless we begin to enforce it. Some one State may suffer next year, because if dues received after January 1st were not allowed to be entered, the basis of representation would be the dues of the preceding year; they might lose their representation, but I think they would never lose it again. As Corresponding Secretary, I will permit myself the pleasure of transmitting MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 95 the resolution, in addition to enforcing the point of constitution, so that each State that may suffer by it will know that it is the vote of the convention. I think that point of the constitution ought to be enforced. The call for the order of the day placed the consideration of the final resolution before Convention. Mrs. Dietrick, Mass.: The point was made last night that it is foreign to the purposes of the association to discuss the question brought up by this resolution. I maintain it is strictly proper. Miss Campell, Pa., explained that she voted against tabling the resolution because she believed in free discussion, but she considered we were frittering away precious time in considering a matter which did not concern our society. Mrs. Barnes, Ill.: This is all out of order. Congress has appropriated millions of dollars under restrictions which were accepted. Mrs. Southworth, Ohio, thought our association too broad to stand for self-interests alone. Mrs. Colby: I rise to a question of privilege. As a member of that committee I presented a resolution prepared by Mrs. Stanton bearing on the point of opening the World's Fair on Sunday. Finding that this resolution, so as to bring that before this convention. I want to know whether I am in order. The President: Mrs. Colby wants to know if it is legal for her to bring in a minority report. Miss Clay: No minority report can be received without the consent of the convention. Mrs. Chamberlain, of Florida, thought we were hampering our members who had such widely different views on this subject. 96 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION Mrs. Allen, of New York, was in favor of the resolution. Mrs. Tindall of the District, said Congress had made a precedent which will stand in history for religious legislation. If this resolution can bring any weight of influence on Congress we ought to pass it. We have all denominations among us and we are all united on the point that Congress should not interfere with our religious views. Mrs. Miller, Md.: May I ask if Congress has the power to close or open the Fair? Will it not have the power to unmake Sunday throughout the United States? Mrs. Waugh: This resolution of Mrs. Stanton was presented to the committee at its first meeting. There was then a full membership present, and the question was voted down almost unanimously. I have had it said to me that we have as good a right to express our opinion as the W. C. T. U. Thats is true; but they sailed under the banner of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; we don't say whether we are christian or unchristian. Mrs. Pickler, S. D.: I arise to move a substitute: "Resolved, That we declare that we are opposed to the union of Church and State in any and every form." I want to speak to this point; I think this covers everything, When Mrs. Stanton's resolution was brought before the committee it was voted down because we thought there were several points on which we were about equally divided, and we thought it would be unprofitable to discuss it. We are all united on this question of the union of Church and State. Now, I think we can all agree upon this, and we cannot agree upon two clauses in that substitute for Mrs. Stanton's resolution. Most of us heard that thoughtful sermon, Sunday, about yokes being placed upon us. Is there any of you that think we can ever succeed in the woman suffrage movement without the religious men and women of this country? Go out to my own State, for instance, where three-fourths of the ministers worked and voted for us in the campaign; shall we put upon them such a stigma as the last clause of this resolution does? MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 97 Mr. Blackwell seconded Mrs. Pickler's motion because, whether he believed them wrong or not, he thought it unfair to oppose the many women who had petitioned against Sunday opening. It was unfair to delegates to oblige them to go home having put themselves on record as favoring this. He urged the convention not to put up a barrier that would keep men and women out of our body. Rachel Foster Avery: MADAME CHAIRMAN, GENTLEMEN AND LADIES: It seems to me that a great deal of this discussion has been wide of the question, shall we as an association take a liberal stand representing the liberal ideas of the women of the country, as all the conservative organizations of the country have taken their stand on this question, representing the conservative feeling of the women of the country? I am perfectly willing to be voted down and to abide by the will of the majority, but I do think we must vote on this question one way or the other. We must have a full and free discussion, and see ourselves placed on record as an association on one side of the question or the other. Mrs. Davis, Kansas: The women of Kansas have petitioned Kansas by petitions yards long to the effect that the fair be closed Sunday. I am very much opposed to this convention interfering with what they have done. Rev. Anna H. Shaw: I gave notice that I should call for the orders of the day as 11.15. I now call for the ordered of the day. Mrs. Avery: I give it as notice then that at 2.30 I shall call for a vote on these resolutions. The President: Here we drop this matter and take up the regular order. Mrs. Upton will read the report of the Congressional committee. I am chairman of the committee nominally, but Mrs. Upton has taken my place and she has done the work, has prepared the report and we will now listen to it. 98 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mrs. Upton read the following report of the congressional committee: This report includes not only an account of the work properly belonging to this Congressional committee, but also of the work done at the headquarters of our association the past year, because upon the departure of the business committee from Washington the business of the association, which had to be done at the Capitol, was turned over to the Congressional committee. Until July some member of this committee was at headquarters nearly every day, while, upon the adjournment of Congress, Mrs. Marble, the superintendent of Wimodaughsis, attended to the business and the committee is indebted to her for her faithfulness and interest. Upon the reassembling of Congress the Congressional committee again took charge. The experience of this year has shown the committee that local societies are not familiar as they should be with the State and national work. The committee recommends both State and national societies to prepare a clear statement of the relation of national to State and State to local, such statements to be presented at annual conventions and discussed.* The report of the Congressional Committee was given last year after the hearing in the House and before the one in the Senate. The proceedings of the latter, however, were so thoroughly given in our suffrage papers and were so generally known from the documents sent out later that it will be only referred to here. The hearing was held in the reception hall of the Senate, all members of the Senate committee who were in the city being present. At the close of the speeches, the Senate committee voted to make a majority report, and it has been the duty of the Congressional committee of your organization to beg and plead and worry the members of the Senate committee periodically from that day to the 4th of January--- nearly a year--- before a report was made. On that date Senator Warren, of Wyoming, submitted a report to the Senate, Senator Vance filing as a minority report the identical report that Senator George filed to the last Senate majority report. The Judiciary Committee of the House states, through its chairman, Judge Culbertson, that no report will be made from that committee this Congress. t If the business committee will allow a suggestion, the Congressional committee ________________________________________________________ *This committee was repeatedly asked to explain just how Congressional hearings were obtained, the difference between a report and hearing, etc. This explanation was prepared, but was crowded out for want of space. t After the adjournment of the convention Sarah Winthrop Smith went before the Judiciary Committee and presented her argument for Federal Suffrage, which appears in the report of this morning. It was well received. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 99 suggests that when they elect their Congressional committee this year that they choose from the large number of eligible women, those of determination and persistence. You might as well have no committee as to have one lacking these qualities, and the stronger these qualities are the greater will be your success. The time has come when women wanting legislation must proceed exactly as men do who want it. No man procures an office for himself or a friend, nor does any man or association get an act passed unless the claim is persistenly pressed, not only upon the members of the committee in charge of it but upon his friends and acquaintances in Congress. There is no use in supposing the justice or right of a question without our work is going to bring about a reform. The first work of the Congressional committee, when they were left to themselves, was the preparing and sending out of a letter to every Senator and Representative in Congress. It sent about three hundred and seventy-five letters, inclosing stamps for answers. It was weeks and weeks before the last answered were received, and some of these law-makers received a second letter and then did not reply nor return stamps. The contents of these letters were tabulated, and the result can be seen by any one who cares to look at the table.* A Kentuckian replied that he did not believe in women voting but "widow-women." A southern member, prominent for his objecting qualities, replied, "No, Susan, no." A Georgia Representative reports himself in favor of it "when the noble women of the South want it," and a Maine member says: "When the women of this country want to vote men cannot stop them." An Alabama Representative says he "has too much respect for ladies to enter into controversy with them." A Virginia member writes: "Wife says she has all the rights she wants." An Illinois man gives the new and startling information that "ladies rule the world now." An Alabama man says he loves them too sincerely to willingly add to their burdens. The number of letters written, 375; number in favor of full suffrage, 59; number in favor of qualified suffrage, 25; number not in favor at all, 65. This committee arranged for the printing and purchasing of twenty-tree thousand copies of the Senate and House hearings. Here is a list of the documents sent to each State: ________________________________________________________ *These tabulations will not be given in this report for want of space. 100 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION Alabama, 100; Arkansas, 125; Arizona, 25; California, ; Connecticut, 125; Colorado, 168; District of Columbia, ; Georgia, 200; Iowa, 302; Indiana, 156; Illinois, 588; Kentucky, 376; Kansas, 500; Louisiana, 150; Maine, 250; Montana, 175; Maryland, 45; Massachusetts, 222; Missouri, 165; Michigan, 428; Minnesota, 250; Mississippi 100; New Hampshire, 52; Nebraska, 452; New York, 2,687; New Jersey, 335; Oregon, 200; Ohio, 1,744; Pennsylvania, 347; Rhode Island, 152; South Dakota, 254; South Carolina, 155; Tennessee, 137; Texas, 2; Utah, 175; Vermont, 220; Wisconsin, 1,030; Washington, 26. All the expenses of headquarters were paid through the Congressional Committee, the National American Society, of course, furnishing the money, as appeared in their treasurer's report. Besides this, the committee had contributions of money from a number of persons.* In order to avoid paying postage on these documents the committee obtained the privilege from four or five members of Congress to use their franks, and not only the new reports but the old ones, which were in bags in the store room, were ready to be sent through the mails to any part of the United States. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Cary were both absent from the city and this large amount of franking could not have been done by the other three members of the committee alone. Their friends and acquaintances were pressed into the service. This list of volunteer service is a very large one and for various reasons is not given here. As people, young and old, sat in our little room pounding out the name M. C., hour after hour I used to wish the whole association could see them and thus realize how many sacrifices of pleasure and strength were made. Aside from the above list of documents sent out, the committee, through the Bureau of Education, obtained a list of the schools and colleges in the United States and sent to 689 institutions copies of these hearings. This work was done mostly bu Eliza Titus Ward and Miss Rhines. In most cases the professors acknowledged the receipt without comment; a very few expressed displeasure, in one or two cases returning them. Later in the year several pupils from southern colleges sent for documents. Several times during the year there have been discussions at the Young Men's Christian Association, and the high school, *Mrs. Peters, $5; Mrs. Greenleaf, New York, $1; Mrs. Davis, Kansas, $1; Miss Anthony, New York, $5; Southern Committee by Miss Clay, $5; Olivia B. Hall, Michigan, $10; Mrs. Houk, Ohio, $2; Mrs Severence, California, $1.50; total, $30.50. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 101 and at colleges around about, and in all cases the debaters have sent or called at headquarters for documents, and in several cases it was learned afterwards that the suffrage side was the successful side. In closing, the committee recommends the rerenting of the suffrage parlors, 1328 I street, northwest, Washington.* Here are our documents ready for distribution, here are our records of memberships, here are suffrage papers on file, here are our historical records. The present location is particularly desirous, as many of the pupils going to and fro from Wimodaughsis become familiar with and inquire into our organization. The suffrage association undoubtedly helps Wimodaughsis financially, but Wimodaughsis helps suffrage educationally. Mrs. Colby, Neb., read the report of the Federal Suffrage Committee: Immediately after my appointment as chairman by the Committee on Federal Suffrage I published in Woman's Tribune and in the National Bulletin the argument of Francis Minor, which, having been published in the Arena of December, 1891, had engaged the public attention. The bill, as prepared by Mr. Minor, was sent to Hon. Clarence D. Clark, of Wyoming, and was by him presented in Congress April 25th, and was referred to the Judiciary Committee of the House. It reads: An Act to protect the right of citizens of the United States to register and to vote for members of the House of Representatives. Whereas the right to choose members of the House of Representatives is vested by the Constitution in the people of the several States, without distinction of sex, but for want of proper legislation has hitherto been restricted to one-half of the people; for the purpose, therefore, of correcting this error and of giving effect to the Constitution: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representative of the United States of American in Congress assembled: That at all elections hereafter held in the several States of this Union for members of the House of Representatives, the right of citizens of the United States, of either sex, above the age of twenty-one years, to register and to vote for such Representatives shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. I then sent a copy of Mr. Minor's argument, with the text of the act marked, to every member of the House and to every member of the Judiciary Committee, the same inclosed in a personal letter, stating that such a bill had been introduced, its number, and that it was now in their hands for *The Suffrage League of New York has given $12 towards the rent. 102 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. consideration. I begged their early and favorable consideration of the matter, but no reply was received from any of them, so I have no means of knowing whether they deemed the privilege of voting for their honors worthy of being exercised by women citizens or not. The duty of securing members of the committee from the States being laid upon me, I proceeded to write letters to secure the intelligent co-operation of one woman in each State who would agree to present the subject before all State gatherings and secure such aid from local workers as would insure the bringing of the petition before every organized body of men and women in the State. I sent each one a Bulletin, in which explains the work, gives the argument on which it is based, and the form of memorial to be used. I had much difficulty in finding women who were willing to even promise to undertake so arduous a work, while at the same time I could not give them even a postage stamp towards the expense. After writing three hundred letters, I obtained forty members for the committee. In addition to securing these persons to have charge of the State work I secured, by personal solicitation, the local assistance of many persons who have sent in a goodly number of the petitions received. Petitions have been received from twenty States as follows: Georgia, 2 - State W.S.A. and Atlanta citizens. Illinois, 4 - Harvey Prohibition Club; E.A.A., 150 members; First Congressional district; State E.S.A. Indiana, 2 - 244 citizens; Elkhurst Federal Association, 300 members. Iowa, 2 - Polk County W.S.A., Newton E.S.A., 40 members Kansas, 5 - Bible Meeting of Salina citizens; Beloit, Attica, Clay Centre and Wichita Suffrage Societies. Kentucky, 2 - State and Kenton County E.R.S. Maine, 3 - Citizens of Hancock Point, Stroudwater, and Ellsworth. Michigan, 2 - Suffrage Societies of Bay City, 104; Grand Rapids, Lansing, 20; Milwaukee and Political Equality Club, of Grand Rapids, 62; State Convention W.C.T.U. and citizens of Detroit, 558. Minnesota, 2 - Ellsworth W.C.T.U. and 102 citizens. Nebraska, 16 - State W.S.A.; David City Union: Beatrice Interstate Chautauqua; mass meeting of citizens of Wayne, and 640 citizens of Pender, Kearney, Crawford, Chadron and Omaha. New York, 16 - Fredonia 5 and Cherry Creek Granges; Sherwood I. O. G. T., 68 members; Suffrage Societies of Castile, Perry, Casadaga, Easton; Dunkirk, 120; Warsaw, 67, and Fredonia, 212. The Unions of Fredonia, Mayville, 35; Perry, Castle, Sherwood, and Scipioville, 38; 19 citizens of South Stockton. Ohio, 13 - State W. S. A.; Suffrage Societies of Toledo, Masillon, Warren, 25; Willoughby, Ashtabula, 32; Cuyahoga Falls, Talmage, Alliance, 22; Canal Fulton, 19; Celina, Akron, and Canton, 30. Pennsylvania, 1 - Swarthmore Woman Suffrage League. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 103 Rhode Island, 15 - Pawtucket W. C. T. U. and 224 citizens of Providence, Little Compton, Pawtucket, Charlestown, Chepachet, Caroline, and Pascoag. South Carolina, 1 - State Equal Rights Association, 69 members. South Dakota, 2 - State E. S. A. and A. L. G. U. Virginia, 1 - Col. Dangerfield, Mrs. K. G. Paul, Lady Manager and eight other citizens. Vermont, 1 - Citizens State W. S. A. Washington - State W. S. A. Wisconsin - State W. S. A. United States Federal Suffrage Association. These petitions have all been properly backed and sent to the Congressmen from whose districts they have been obtained. In every case where a petition was presented to a member for the first time it was accompanied by a letter calling especial attention to it. From some of the members acknowledgements have been received. Hon. William Baker, of Kansas, said he would present the petition, and added: "I shall be very glad if I can do anything for the enfranchisement of the wives and mothers of our country," Hon. J. B. Robinson, of Pennsylvania, said, in acknowledging the memorial of the Woman Suffrage League of Swarthmore, "that he would be obliged if I would notify the friends at Swarthmore that he had given the matter proper attention." Hon. McKem, of Nebraska, promised to present the petitions, but added that it was his opinion that they would produce no effect, for the reason that members are not certain how it would be received by their constituents. Thinking to obtain some wise counsel that would help the National American Woman Suffrage Association to decide whether or no this is a wise line of work I wrote, a few weeks ago, to nineteen United States Senators, all of them known to be (mildly) friendly to our cause, and with all official formality begged the favor of their opinion upon the merits of this line of work. I received only one reply. Senator Dolph, of Oregon, replied: "I have not critically examined the question as to the power of Congress to prescribe the qualifications of voters for members of Congress, but my present impression is that it has not that power; that that power is not conferred upon Congress by the Constitution, but that the qualifications of electors for members of Congress are determined by each State in prescribing the requisite qualifications for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature." As this seems the prevailing opinion, I will briefly state the argument on which our demand for Federal suffrage is based. 104 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. The Supreme Court has decided that the right to vote for members of Congress is based upon the Constitution of the United States, Article I, section 2. "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States ; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislature." In the case of Scott vs. Sanford the decision of the Supreme Court emphasized the fact that "people" and "citizens" are identical terms. In the case of Minor vs. Happerset it was held that women were citizens, and while in the same case the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one, nine years later, in 1884, in the Yarbrough case, the court decided that the right of Federal suffrage does exist. The language used was explicit. The Court said : "But it is not correct to say that the right to vote for a member of Congress does not depend on the Constitution of the United States. The office, if it be properly called an office, is created by the Constitution, and by that alone. It also declares how it shall be filled, namely, by election." The right to vote for members of Congress is thus vested in the people-women as well as men-but Congress allowed the State to fix the qualifications for the exercise of the right ; that is, it said the United States would accept for voters for members of the House of Representatives the qualifications that the State required for electors. The power to make regulations concerning the exercise of this right is reserved by Congress to itself in section 4, Article I, which provides : "The time, place and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof, but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators." The necessity for having the paramount authority over the rights of citizens remain in the National Government was shown by Mr. Madison, one of the framers of the Constitution, in the debates in the Virginia convention of 1788, which was called to ratify the Federal Constitution. Mr. Madison was asked to explain the meaning of the fourth section, particularly as to why Congress had an ultimate control over the time, place and manner of holding elections of Representatives, to which he replied, that the power was reserved because "should the people of any State by any means MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 105 be deprived of the right of suffrage, it was judged proper that it should be remedied by the General Government." (Elliot's Debates 2, 266.) Thirty millions of people are deprived by their States of the exercise of their rights as citizens of those States, and because Congress has not exercised its reserved right of protecting citizens of the United States they have been deprived of all representation in the Halls of Congress. Women, without a State, they have been by the willful and wicked insertion of the word "male" into State constitutions. Women without a nation, they have been by neglect of Congress to make such regulations that the State should not be able to overstep the bounds of their authroity and prevent citizens of the United States from exercising this right of Federal suffrage. Now, we are asking Congress to remedy this neglect and exercise its reserved power for our protection. It is the sisters of the family appealing to the fathers to protect their relationship to him and let them have speech and audience with him, and now we want Uncle Sam to say : "Yes, girls, while I cannot interfere with your quarrels among yourselves, I will certainly let you have a chance to tell me all about it and will see that you have a voice in whatever concerns the general welfare of this great family of ours. I recognized your right to this in the first place, buy I have been a little careless in leaving all the arrangements for providing for it to the big, strong boys who pushed in ahead. Now that you have called my attention to it, I am very glad that I have not deeded away all control of my household." One who does not agree with this view of Federal suffrage claims that it is apparent that States do have control over elections for members of Congress from the fact that they have made qualifications for electors which are different from those made by Congress which requires five years' residence for United States citizenship, while in many of the States aliens vote, having been in this country only six months or a year. But two wrongs do not make one right. There is no doubt in my mind that the States have transcended their authority equally in presuming to let men vote for members who are citizens. And the National Government has been equally negligent or indifferent in both cases, and both errors have done it grievous harm. Aside from the changes of securing the passage of such a bill the educational work is of great value. The pressing sharply home upon an age to which the principles of our 106 Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. republican Government have largely become an "irridescent dream;" the fact that women are citizens, part of the sovereign people, whose power has been wrested from them by the other half, must have its result in arousing men to their injustice and women to the humiliation of their position. This insisting upon the power of the Federal Government to protect its citizens is in the interest of national patriotism and national existence. As citizens of the United States, with all the powers and dignities of sovereignty inherent in us and only waiting for an act of Congress to bring these into activity, we do not feel ourselves to be without a country, and we are encouraged to make more strenuous efforts to enter into the possession of the inheritance bequeathed to us by the fathers. As we ask the States to amend their constitutions and give us full suffrage, but urge that they give us at once such measure of suffrage as it is plainly within their power to do, so we ask Congress to pass an amendment so that the States may be prohibited from disfranchising women because of sex, and at the same time ask it to apply this limited but immediate remedy which lies in its power to enact. The special value of this form of agitation is that it recognizes women as part of the fountain-head of power, and while we ask now for this, and work for that, besieging the fortifications of injustice from many sides, we will not forget that the right of voting and all right is ours; that our Magna Charta came straight from the Creator himself when he made us human beings, and that in attempting to win men to concede the exercise of these rights we are educating them and ourselves, and are working in harmony with eternal laws of justice, and also in harmony with the equally inflexible and beneficent laws of social evolution. At the close of Mrs. Colby's report the President announced that the first speaker in the discussion upon Citizenship Suffrage would be Sara Winthrop Smith, who, at the last election, had attempted to register preparatory to voting for the member of the House of Representatives of her Congressional district at Seymour, Connecticut, and who now had a bill in Congress asking National protection in her citizen's right to vote. Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. 107 Sara Winthrop Smith, Conn., opened the discussion with the following address:* By the principles adopted at the very foundation of our Government, the right of suffrage was vested in the citizenship of the United States. This idea is not necessarily in conflict with the present political atmosphere (or the present theory of Government,) nor is it in conflict with the political atmosphere which prevailed yesterday. In brief, it is not a question of the rights of State governments at all, nor even the right of Congress. But it is a question of THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE! The United States Constitution declares that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States;" (first,) "and" (then,) "citizens of the States wherein they reside." And it further expressly declares that "no State shall make or enforce and law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens of the United States, nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Therefore, such interpretation of provisions in the several State constitutions which would exclude woman-citizens of the United States from the elective franchise on account sex violates alike the spirit and letter of the United States Constitution. Under all the fundamental laws of our Republic, citizenship, subject to proper qualifications (for the protection of the people), is the only true basis for the ballot, and our naturalization laws alone would prove this. Such laws are expressly withheld from the States, and, as the States would clearly have no right to deprive naturalized citizens of the right to vote (among whom women are definitely included), still more clearly have the States no right to deprive native born women citizens of this privilege. Thomas Jefferson said: "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy, but can not disjoin them." Mr. Madison said, in comment upon the U.S. Constitution: The definition of the right of suffrage is very justly regarded as a fundamental article of republican government. It was incumbent on the convention (1787) to define and establish this right in the Constitution. To have left it open for the occasional regulation of the Congress would have been improper for the reason just mentioned. To have submitted it to the legislative discrimination of the States would have been improper for the same reason, and for the additional reason that it would have rendered *Miss Smith gave this address before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives and it was well received. 108 Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. too dependent upon the State governments that branch of the Federal Government which out to be dependent on THE PEOPLE ALONE. The United States, as such, came into existence as a protest against the unjust and oppressive acts of a political superior - the Parliament of Great Britain. They began to exist, moreover, when the words, "liberty," "equality," "fraternity," were throbbing into a terrible life. In choosing their own political organization, therefore, the people of the American States resolved to have a government in which political superiors should have no place - in which the ruled should be also, and as such, the rules - i.e. the people should be the sovereigns. The fundamental principles of this Government were tersely yet comprehensively laid down in the Declaration of Independence, thus: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that to secure those rights, governments were instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive to those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government. Recall the opening words of the U.S. Constitution: We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty to ourselves and to our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Justice, liberty, the general welfare, these are the great objects of the Constitution. This opening sentence furnishes the commanding rule by which the entire Constitution is to be interpreted. Of it Judge Story says that it was not intended to provide merely for the exigencies of a few years, but was to endure through a lapse of the ages. In a government like ours the right to vote precedes the election of both National and State legislatures. It also precedes the adoption of National and State constitutions: without voters, no laws can be legally or constitutionally adopted. There has been much said about the dangers of a centralized government - a centralized despotism; but the only centralized despotism really existent to-day is the rule of men over women without their consent. If the right of suffrage exist at all it is an individual right and must be exercised by individuals; it is not a right which belongs to a class or to a sex. Do men vote by classes? Are the most sacred rights of the people in the gift of a privileged class? If women citizens of the United States have the right to a voice in this government, then the Minutes of the Suffrage Convention. 109 dignity of our position should be sustained. If we concede that the State governments may confer, as a gift, the most sacred right of citizenship, then, indeed, is our humiliation complete; we are to beg for favors where we should demand as a right! What woman of us all will stoop to conquer? None, I hope, in the name of the higher womanhood which should demand the recognition of its higher needs. Our task is to life a prone humanity into a realization of the dignity of human life. The dignity of the human being is that each one is both the doer and the judge of his own actions. The right of suffrage is and makes the difference between disfranchisement, the punishment inflicted upon felons, and enfranchisement, the recognition of the personality as sacred. It is the difference between a government of the people by the people, for the people and a government by the people, by an oligarchy, for an oligarchy! Yet, behind all misinterpretation and injustice, born of an inordinate love of power, lie - still safe - the magnificent institutions which have made our country known the world over as "The Land of the Free!" The only restriction placed upon the States by the United States Constitution [if indeed that can be called a restriction which was intended to protect the body of the people] is that the States shall not exchange republican for anti-republican constitutions [Sec. 4, Art. IV], a restriction which cannot be called a grievance, since it declares to the people of every State that the National Government [i.e., the governments of all the States as represented in the nation,] will protect the citizens of any State from any invasion of their rights by such men as they [the citizens] may have chosen to guard their interests within their State. Mr. Justice Wilson, of the United States Supreme Court [Chisholm vs. Georgia,] said in 1793: Let a State be considered as subordinate to the people, but let everything else be subordinate to the State. And further said: Laws derive from the pure source of equality and justice must be founded on the consent of those whose obedience they require. Chief-Justice Jay said, in the same case: It will be sufficient to observe briefly that the sovereigns in Europe, and particularly in England, exist on feudal principles. That system considers the prince as the sovereign and the people as his subjects. No such ideas obtain here; at the Revolution, the sovereignty devolved upon the people; and they are truly the sovereigns of the country, but they are sovereigns without subjects, and have none to govern but themselves; the citizens of America are equal as fellow-citizens and as joint-tenants in the sovereignty. 110 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION It will be remembered by every student of constitutional history that, when the original Convention of State delegates met at Philadelphia in 1787, various plans were suggested for the reformation of that defective system of government known as the Articles of Confederation. Among these plans were the resolutions of Governor Randolph, of Virginia. It was he who proposed the great idea "that a National Government ought to be established consisting of a supreme Legislative, Executive and Judiciary." This proposition developed, in the course of the debate, into the Constitution of the United States. The XVI resolution read: Resolved, that a republican constitution and its existing laws ought to be guaranteed to each State by the United States. Compare Sec. 4 of Art. IV, United States Constitution. The VII resolution read : Resolved, That the right of suffrage in the first branch of the National Legislature ought not to be according to the rule established in the "Articles of Confederation," but according to some equitable ratio of representation ; namely, in proportion to the whole number of white and other free citizens and the inhabitants of every age, sex, and condition, including those bound in servitude for a term of years and three-fifths of all other persons not comprehended in the foregoing description, except Indians not paying taxes in each State. Compare §3, Sec. 2, Art I, United States Constitution: Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound in the service for a term of years and, excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons, etc. We here find women included in the basis of representation and the slaves partially excluded. What does this prove? Evidently that the enslavement and disfranchisement of the colored race was contemplated and actually recognized by the United States Constitution as well as in the action taken upon the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, a majority of one vote striking out the clause which pleaded for the freedom of that subjected class. This made the amendment of the United States Constitution a necessity before the colored people could vote. On the other hand, the disfranchisement of women was not seriously considered for a moment. James Madison, construing this article of the United States Constitution said [Federalist, No. 54] : MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 111 It is not contended that the number of people in each State ought not to be the standard for regulating the proportion of those who are to represent the people of each State. The establishment of this same rule for the apportionment of taxes will probably be as little contested, though the rule itself, in this case, is by no means founded on the same principle. In the former case the rule is understood to refer to THE PERSONAL RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE, with which it has a natural and universal connection. In the latter is has reference to the proportion of wealth of which it is in no case a precise measure, and in ordinary cases a very unfit one. But, notwithstanding the imperfection of the rule as applied to the relative wealth and contributions of the States, it is evidently the least exceptionable among the practicable rules, and has too recently obtained the general sanction of America, not to have found a ready preference with the Convention. All this is admitted, it will, perhaps, be said; but does it follow from an admission of numbers for the measure of representation, or of slaves combined with free citizens, as a ratio of taxation, that slaves ought to be included in the numerical ratio of representation? Slaves are considered as property, not as persons; they ought, therefore, to be comprehended in the estimates of taxation which are founded on property, and to be excluded from representation WHICH IS REGULATED BY A CENSUS OF PERSONS. The Federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety in the case of our slaves when it views them in the mixt character of persons and property. This is in fact their true character. It is the character bestowed on them by the laws under which they live; and it will not be denied that these are the proper criteria; because it is only under the pretext that the laws have transformed the negroes into subjects of property, THAT A PLACE IS DISPUTED THEM IN THE COMPUTATION OF NUMBERS; and it is admitted that, IF THE LAWS WERE TO RESTORE THE RIGHTS WHICH HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY, the negroes could no longer be refused AN EQUAL SHARE OF REPRESENTATION." Therefore, women, being counted in the enumeration upon which the apportionment is made, are entitled to direct representation in this Government. In the face of the actual laws, it can never be claimed that there was ever such general understanding or discrimination against the right of a woman citizen of the United States to vote at the time of the adoption of the United States Constitution as would justify Congress or the courts in going outside of the Constitution to determine the meaning [or the limitations] of the word "people." If this supposition were true, why was it deemed necessary to insert the word "male" into the various State constitutions? If this supposition were true, why were not women disfranchised by name--left out from the enumeration upon which the apportionment was made, and relieved from taxation, as were the enslaved classes whose rights to direct representation were expressly denied? The fact is that universal sovereignty to-day--except in one State--only exists in our grand fundamental institutions, never in the oligarchy which has built itself up in our midst! 112 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION In the Minor vs. Happersett case the United States Supreme Court knew that, in order to fulfill the wishes of the power behind it, it must ignore the high obligations of the Bench to construe all law in favor of liberty. The uniform practice of American homocracy has been in controversion of all points brought up to protect the larger liberties of the people--for the XIV Amendment affords the only instance where citizenship was distinctly conferred by the Constitution of the United States. And we have seen the necessity for this in the fact that the enslaved classes were denied equal place in the basis of representation on the plea that, being property, they could not hold property in their own right. Neither was the Indian taxed, and he also was counted out of the basis of representation. Therefore, no amendment of the United States Constitution is or ever will be necessary to secure full protection for woman citizens of the United States in their right to vote. All that is necessary is the passage of a declaratory act by the Congress of the United States--as the agent whose duty it is, under our National Constitution, to guard and secure the chartered rights of the whole people. Mrs. DIETRICK: I have long held the view that Miss Smith has just presented, and I believe if there were a wide-spread movement on the part of women to get that right it would not be waived aside any longer. Rev. ANNA H. SHAW: On the direct line of Federal suffrage, I noticed in the Pose an announcement that the day before a bill had been introduced in the House of Representatives to submit the vote for the Presidency directly to the people, and it was claimed that Congress could exercise no control over the manner of elections in the various States. This paper seemed to feel that a State wasn't larger than the National Government, and that the National Government had a right to control the election of its own officers. Mr. BLACKWELL: I would simply remind our friends that it is recognized by everybody and by the Supreme Court that the right of suffrage to-day exists solely in the States. The recent overwhelming change in this country has placed the control of the Government in the hands of the States' rights party, the party that has always viewed with jealousy any extension of Federal power. If any one desires to know what the Supreme MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 113 Court thinks on this subject, all she has to do is ask any Judge of the Supreme Court, and she will get a very decided and distinct answer, and it will be in the negative. The legislatures of the States can give us some suffrage, and that is the best we can do. Let us go to every one of the twenty-seven State legislatures and ask them to gives us such forms of woman suffrage as they are recognized as having the constitutional right to grant. Miss GILLETTE said Congress had certainly control of Federal suffrage in the District, and women certainly ought to besiege Congress to give them the ballot, so they could get rid of some of the unjust laws against women which exist here. Mrs. VIRGINIA L. MINOR was introduced by Miss ANTHONY with an allusion to her suit, which was taken to the highest tribunal in the land. Mrs. MINOR said she was the Minor vs. Happersett case and the Dred Scott peer. She reminded Mr. Blackwell that if he would turn back to the Slaughter-House cases he would find that it was held that when a negro becomes a citizen he becomes a voter in every State in the Union. This ruling not only secured the negro's ballot but that of the Mexican pæan, the Indian, and all classes but the woman. Miss BLACKWELL said if we got that declaratory act from Congress the Supreme Court would decide it unconstitutional. In a vote on it in Congress we should not carry our full strength because nine of our friends would fear its unconstitutionality, and a debate on it would be on technical grounds and of no educational benefit. Miss SMITH: There has been a decision of the Supreme Court in this October term which declares in favor of the position Mrs. Minor was held. Here is what it says, speaking of the Minor vs. Happersett case: "This was a case where a woman claimed the right, under the XIV amendment, to vote. It is noteworthy 8 w s 114 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. that no one thought of claiming that the amendment did not protect her right if she had any . . . The amendment does not merely include this right in general terms and protect it by implication merely ; it clearly and specifically declares it. It guarantees that right." Mrs. Barnes, Ill. : I learned from legislative work last winter that when the legislatures of the different States chose to give suffrage to women there is nothing in the Constitution of the United States which will oppose her exercising that suffrage. The constitution of Illinois says that no woman can hold an elective office which is named in the constitution of the State of Illinois. I believe we must concentrate all our efforts upon our State legislatures. Miss Dangerfield, Va. : If the woman suffrage cause is proposed to be antagonistic to State rights it kills it forever south of Mason and Dixon's line ; if it is believed to be identified with State rights it will find a strength there you have never dreamed of. The President: I believe in State rights and National rights too. Miss Blackwell: Do you think if a test case were brought before the present Supreme Court the chances are they would decide for us or against us? The President: My opinion is that each man would decide in accordance with his prejudices. We are making this claim to educate the Justices. We want to educate those who make the laws, those who interpret them and those who execute them, as well as the populace. Rev. Anna H. Shaw : I wish to say that every one who pays taxes ought to send a protest every time. I have in one place to pay thirty-four cents taxes a year, and I send two great sheets of foolscap filled with an argument against taxation without representation. I have converted that man, and he wants to give the ballot to his wife. Every woman of us ought to protest every time we pay our taxes. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION 115 Thursday Afternoon State reports were read and occupied the time till the regular order was called. The President: The regular order is called for. The question is upon a vote on the last resolution. The original resolution and Mrs. Pickler's substitute were read. Mrs. Goff, N. Y.: I amend by substituting the following: "Resolved, That inasmuch as the National American Woman Suffrage Association exists solely for the purpose of securing political rights for women, we decline to take action upon this resolution presented by the committee." I have sat here and looked at the face of Lucretia Mott, and knowing her very liberal principles on such subjects as this, I can hear her sweet voice saying, "While I have my own opinions on this subject, I do not think we are called upon to hurt ourselves." Whichever way the question is decided by this body it will hurt; it is a question outside of the object for which we are banded together. Mrs. De Witt, N. J.: I would like to ask the consent of the house to the removal of Mrs. Pickler's motion. Consent not granted. The President: All who are in favor of substituting Mrs. Goff's resolution for Mrs. Pickler's say aye. By vote of the convention Mrs. Goff's substitute was accepted. The President" Mrs. Goff s substitute is now before the house. Mrs. Avery: That brings us back to the original question, and I call for the roll call on that. 116 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Mrs. Otis, Kans.: Last night I voted against tabling this resolution because I did not want to cut off discussion; but if we take any action on it, we commit ourselves for or against opening the World's Fair on Sunday. I now find that the resolution was adroitly worded. I wish to make a motion that the whole matter be indefinitely postponed. One year from now the question can be taken up. Mrs. Dietrick: I musts protest against this term "adroit" endeavoring to make you vote for or against opening the World's Fair on Sunday. While it does refer to the World's Fair as an example, this is not in any sense of the word a discussion of Sunday. It is no matter how the general public understand it. Rev. A. H. Shaw: You are all out of order; a motion to indefinitely postpone is the motion before the house. This vote was viva voce. Mrs. Otis' resolution was carried. The following resolution was offered: Resolved, That the Business Committee shall appoint a national press superintendent not connected with any periodical, whose duty it shall be to supply all news items in regard to political, educational, and industrial advancement of women to all publications issues in the interests of women which shall make application for such news. It shall also be her duty to place herself in communication with all State press superintendents for the purpose of gathering and disseminating said news. Mrs. Hood, N.Y.: I wish to make an amendment that this press superintendent shall not be connected in any way with any other periodical. There has been a great deal of discussion in regard to these State superintendents. I would like to take exception to a remark made from the stage that there are already eight suffrage papers and that it was hoped there would be no more. Is it forgotten that this is a National Convention and that it is necessary to reach millions of women in every part of this country. It has been said that this remark was made in a spirit of charity. These suffrage papers are not charitable institutions. They are financial corporations that come here MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 117 for business purposes, and it is no part of this convention to consider the financial standing of these papers, and it is no part of this convention to say whether the public shall receive its suffrage doctrines pure and unadulterated or given homæopathically. The adoption of the press superintendent will place the responsibility for this press work where it can be reached, and it was on this account that the resolution was made to read just as it does. The President: I find that I made myself sadly misunderstood by the remark made yesterday. I have an experience in publishing a paper about twenty-five years ago and I came to grief in it. I never hear of a woman starting a woman suffrage paper that my blood does not tingle with agony for what that poor soul has to go through - the same agony I went through. I feel we shall never becomes an immensely great power in the world until we concentrate all our money and editorial fores upon one great national daily newspaper, so we can sauce back our opponents every day in the year; once a month or once a week is not enough. Mrs. Colby: I wish to ask if it is a crime to be a woman suffrage editor? If such a one should be disfranchised and kept out of serving in any position to which the Business Committee might see fit to appoint her? We should probably not have any National Convention to-day had it not been for the pioneer woman suffrage papers. Mrs. Murphy: I would like to correct one impression; that when a woman becomes an editor of a suffrage paper she must pauperize herself. I speak from experience. I started a suffrage paper a year ago and that paper has paid its way ever since. I wish to say that a weekly suffrage paper will pay and a daily paper will not pay. I have worked on a daily paper from the ground upward, and no daily paper can be made to pay, unless the subscription price is ten dollars, and it must have a circulation of at least a hundred thousand. I would like to see in every county in this country a good straight weekly suffrage paper. Mrs. Hood: The creed of this convention is equal representation; and if anybody comes here and says I am working for you and for your cause, they should receive equal representation in this convention. 118 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION The resolution was reffered to the Committee on Plan of Work. Mrs. AVERY read plan of work.* The National American Woman Suffrage Association recommends to the State and local societies auxiliary the following work for the coming year. Of the standing committees of the association the following ask for their work the co-operation of the membership : Committee on Press, Committee on Southern Work, Congressional Committee, Federal Suffrage Committee, Committee on Enrollment, Committee on Kansas Constitutional Campaign. The chairman of the Press Committee has found it difficult to secure individual assistants in the various parts of the country. It is hoped that this year she may find her hands upheld in this work by the State and the local associations, and by individual workers. There is no greater source of influence than the general press. All over the country there are papers, large and small, which will gladly give space for information and argument upon our question. Whenever an opponent can be found willing to discuss the subject, nothing can be more desirable than a newspaper debate. Expressed opposition always calls out interest, and it is almost certain to develop into open friendliness some who may have been lukewarm believers. Mrs. Ellen Batelle Dietrick, 176 Huntington avenue, Boston, is chairman of this committee. The Committee on Work in the South is endeavoring to unify the suffrage forces in the Southern States where already considerable favorable sentiment exists. This committee asks for contributions, both of money and literature, which may be forwarded to its chairman, Miss Laura Clay, 78 Broadway, Lexington, Ky. The work of the Congressional Committee will be greatly assisted if every believer in woman suffrage will write a letter to her Senators and Representatives in Congress, asking them to represent her views upon woman's enfranchisement, and do all in their power to secure Congressional consideration for the amendment. This committee has in charge the printing and sending out of Congressional reports and hearings, and all persons wishing documents or information upon Congressional matters or wishing to contribute money to this committee can reach them by addressing Congressional Committee, National Headquarters, 1328 I street N. W., Washington, D. C. *This includes the plan as read and the suggestions offered later. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 119 The work of the Federal Suffrage Committee is regarded as valuable and important. Contributions in aid of this line of work may be sent to the chairman, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, 1325 Tenth street, Washington, D. C. We earnestly recommend each State to appoint a Committee on Enrollment and to make enrollment a part of their State work, if possible by house to house canvass. They may adopt either the National Enrollment, enrolling by Congressional districts the names of all men and women who will sign the following affirmation, "We believe women should vote on equal terms with men," or the State representative enrollment, enrolling by State representative districts the names of men and women who will promise to do what they can, consistently with their own political duties, to secure the nomination and election of State legislators who are in favor of woman suffrage. Mrs. Louise Southworth, 844 Prospect street, Cleveland, Ohio, is chairman of the National American Committee on Enrollment, and all those desiring to work upon the plan of the National enrollment should correspond directly with her. Those who wish to undertake the State enrollment are requested by Mrs. Southworth to apply to Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, 3 Park street, Boston, for materials and information. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, by virtue of its membership in the National Council of Women of the United States, which organization grew out of the International Council of Women of 1888, of which the National Woman Suffrage Association was the hostess, acquires the right and accepts the duty of assisting in the lines of general work undertaken by the council. These are at present two. (a) The support of the bill now in the hands of the Congressional committee, which proies that in all departments of work under the charge and in the pay of the National Government, there shall be no distinction on account of sex in wages where the same work is performed. The individual members, who are willing to write upon the suffrage question to their Senators and Representatives in Congress, will do a double work by asking them to vote for this bill when it shall come up for its third reading. (b) The National Council of Women, through its Committee on Dress, is doing an important work toward freeing woman from the trammels of the conventional dress, which is a hindrance to her full and free development physically and mentally. It does not ask the official co-operation of our organization, but the interest of the individual members in this department. The council's illustrated report on this subject will be mailed 120 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. free to anyone sending name, address and request for it to Mrs. Frances E. Russell, chairman council Committee on Dress, Post-office Box 390, St. Paul, Minn. It has been the experience in several States that where the managers of State or county fairs, of teachers' institutes and Chautauquas have been induced one year to permit a woman to address the large audience generally assembled on such occasions, this has been found to be such an added attraction to the meeting that the next year has brought an invitation and offer to pay for the services of a speaker. This furnishes a grand opportunity to bring our question before immense gatherings of persons not already familiar with the same subject, and we urge upon the presidents of our State auxiliaries the advisability of correspondence with the management of all these societies. It is already time to do this for the coming summer, and if it is left until later the opportunity may not be open. In view of the advisability of organizing the great number of people already in favor of women's enfranchisement yet not members of any organization, we urge the formation of local societies in all villages, towns and cities where they do not already exist. It has been found difficult in small places to carry on associations on account of the number of meetings called for. Therefore we suggest the following brief constitution, which provides for only one "stated" meeting annually, and leaves it to the call of the president, on the request of three members, to announce other meetings. Constitution suggested for local suffrage organizations: I. - Name. This association shall be called the Woman Suffrage Society of ------- II. - Object. Its object shall be to work for the full enfranchisement of women. III. Meetings. It shall hold one meeting annually for the election of officers, the payment of dues, and the transaction of other business; and the president may call meetings at the request if three members on one week's notice. IV. - Dues and Auxiliaryship. The annual membership fee shall be fifty cents. The association shall be auxiliary to the State of ------ Woman Suffrage Association, and shall pay annually into the State treasury twenty-five cents per member. V. - Methods. It shall further the cause of woman suffrage by the distribution of suffrage literature, by securing subscribers for the woman suffrage newspapers, by its meetings, lectures, and by any other work suggested by the MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 121 State association to which it is auxiliary or by the National American Woman Suffrage Association upon which it may decide VI. - Officers. The officers shall be a president, vice president corresponding and recording secretaries, and treasurer, whose duties shall be the usual duties of their respective offices. In addition, the treasurer shall send to the State treasurer not later than November 30 the amount of the auxiliary free, accompanied by two lists of the names and addresses of all the paid up members. VII. - Amendments. This constitution may be amended at any meeting by a majority of the members present, provided the amendment shall have been sent in writing by the secretary to each member of the association at least two weeks before the meeting. By action of the National American Woman Suffrage Association at its Executive Committee meeting January 15, 1893, it was decided that in view of the coming constitutional campaign in Kansas the work there be urged upon the attention of all our members as the most important for this year. Kansas is already comparatively well organized, our cause has splendid workers ther, and it certainly seems more hopeful soil for the growth of the perfect flower of equal suffrage than any other State can at present offer us. There is no more efficient manager and organizer in our ranks than the president of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association, Laura M. Johns, who is also the chairman of the National American Committee upon the Kansas campaign. Contributions for the Kansas work are solicited, and may be sent to Mrs. Laura M. Johns, Salina, Kansas. We urge subscriptions to the various suffrage papers for the information of those interested in our work and the enlightenment of those indifferent. The report of the Badge Committee was then presented to the Convention, and it was moved that an appropriation be made to pay the expenses of manufacturing the badges; the money received from the sale of the same to go into the treasury of the association. It was finally decided to allow the manufacture and sale of badges to be conducted as a private enterprise. The Convention refused to adopt any official badge, save that of the yellow ribbon 122 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. The report of the Colombian Exposition Committee was then read by Rachel Foster Avery: The report of this committee must necessarily be along the line of work attempted, as the fruition of its labors cannot be known until after the close of the great Columbian Exposition. At the last annual convention the Columbian Exposition Committee was augmented by the general officers, and a representative from each State, to be chosen by the Executive Committee of each State, or in such manner as was in harmony with the policy of the State. Very early in the year I wrote of this to each State president, giving until March 1st as the time when all replies should be in my hands. Twenty-two of the then thirty auxiliary States appointed members. In May a number of the suffrage workers were in Chicago and held an informal meeting to discuss the best manner of utilizing our opportunities during the Columbian Exposition. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby suggested holding daily noontide meetings during the entire time of the Exposition, in an auditorium of the Woman's Building. This plan was approved by the meeting, and afterwards, upon presentation to the Business Committee, was approved by it, and sent to the members of the Columbian Exposition Committee asking for the co-operation of the States in the matter, in the way if furnishing speakers, presiding officers, etc. The presidents replied expressing great interest, and sent to me the suggested names of ninety-five speakers and helpers. Application was made to the Board of Lady Managers for the use of an auditorium in the Woman's Building for the noontide hour during the World's Fair. One paragraph of the letter may show the breadth of interests which it was thought might be presented at those meetings. "It is the intention of the Columbian Exposition Committee of this association, which will have in charge the meetings to be held daily in the auditorium, not to confine the speakers to the political status of women, but to widen the range of the subjects to be considered so as to include the equality of the sexes in all domains- political, social, domestic and religious." I was assured that after the board met, on the 18th of the month of October (I had made application September 26th), the matter would receive attention, and that the decision would be sent at the earliest possible moment. 123 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. On three occasions after this I wrote urging a decision of the matter, and finally received the following letter from Mrs. Palmer: My Dear Mrs. Avery: The Board of Lady Managers has appointed committees to take charge of the congresses, readings and informal meetings to be held in their assembly rooms. They did not seem disposed to appoint any other organization to carry on this work, but will be delighted, I am sure, to have your organization suggest titles or papers by different individuals which could be given during the Exposition in connection with special topics or courses- or relating to general interests of women. Will you let me hear if this will be agreeable to you and also what topics you wish to propose? And greatly oblige, Yours most sincerely, Bertha Honore Palmer This seemed to put an end to our hopes for daily meetings, but I immediately wrote to Mrs. Palmer accepting the privilege offered us in the letter quoted, but assuring her that the proposed programme could not be well sent until after our next annual meeting. On learning that we could not have the use of the auditorium, I tried, by correspondence, to get the use of the auditorium in the Indiana Building. Failing in this, the Wyoming Building was suggested as one of the most appropriate places in which we could hold our meetings, but on investigation it was found that it was too much out of the way, too much on one side of the grounds, to be of best use to us. Applications for space in the Woman's Building for the use of our Association was first made in December, 1891. Since then the application has been reiterated- formally, informally, by the Secretary personally, and by other persons. The subject is just decided, by a telegram from Mrs. Palmer, saying, "Space has been granted your organization in the National Council of Women" As soon as the State members of the Columbian Committee were appointed, I sent to each a package of official paper, envelopes, and lists of officers and standing committees, for their use in such correspondence as they might have. I had a number of inquiries from the State members of the committee asking what to do with space should they obtain it, as they were recommended to do in a former letter. I replied that if the State association should think best to try to secure space, and was successful, I thought that the principal good which might accrue would be to use the opportunity afforded for the purpose of obtaining signatures of citizens 124 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. zens from the respective States in favor of equal suffrage; that it seemed as though we might gather a huge enrollment of our friends in this way. This I tried to make plain was an unofficial suggestion. Many valuable suggestions were received from the State members of the committee, and four States asked the privilege, should we have the noontide meetings, of having the entire charge of a week's meeting each. These States were Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, and Michigan. As we are to be represented in so many ways during the World's Fair—i. e., at the World's Congress of Representative Women, in the Suffrage Congresses, in the meetings to be held in the auditorium of the Woman's Building, in the programme to be presented by us for the approval of the Committee on General Meetings of the Board of Lady Managers —I would strongly urge against attempting to hold a separate suffrage congress, either national or international, during the Exposition. Since this report was prepared, a meeting of the Columbian Exposition Committee has been held, with the following results: The committee decided— ( 1 ) To accept the invitation of the World's Congress of Representative Women to hold a day's meeting in a department room of the Art Palace during the week of the congress. ( 2 ) To authorize the chairman to secure the use of an auditorium in some State building of noonday meetings. ( 3 ) To authorize the acceptance of our proportion of the space allotted to the National Council of Women in the Woman's Building and the preparation of documents to be kept there for distribution throughout the time of the Exposition. It was voted, on motion of Miss Shaw, that the president of the association be authorized to present the cause before national bodies during the coming year in such manner as she deems best. It was voted that the officers of this association shall not sign their official titles to personal and unofficial communications or documents. It was voted that all unfinished business be left to the Executive Committee. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 125 Mrs. Greenleaf made a financial report of the Stanton- Anthony-Mott Bust Fund, * and urged the women of the association not to let those women go unremembered, who had through struggles brought up the women from slavery to partial freedom. "These are our Roger Sherman, Thomas Jefferson, and Samuel Adams. Let us see that they are honored and let us hope that some day they may find place in the Capitol of the United States." _______ Thursday Evening. The programme of the evening was carried out as published. Mr. and Mrs. FRED. MARBLE and Miss ALICE MARBLE rendered a selection for trio mandolins and piano, and were encored. States. No. of persons. Amount. Arkansas 1 $10 00- California 18 6 50 Colorado 18 7 00 Connecticut 2 10 75 District of Columbia 78 258 51 Kansas 7 8 00 Kentucky 1 1 00 Louisiana 1 1 00 Maryland 2 6 00 Georgia 1 2 00 Illinois 5 76 00 Indiana 5 14 00 Iowa 6 5 00 Massachusetts 11 30 50 Michigan 23 151 25 States. No. of persons. Amount. Minnesota 4 $25 00 Nebraska 4 31 50 New Hampshire 1 2 00 New Jersey 3 11 00 New York 3 712 34 Ohio 15 160 00 Pennsylvania 23 218 50 S. Dakota 2 2 00 Tennessee 2 6 00 Washington 1 5 00 Wisconsin 1 1 00 Virginia 2 2 00 England 1 10 00 France 1 10 00 Rome 5 45 00 Total amount received $1,886 85 Amount paid to the artist $1,813 09 To stationary, printing, postage, assistant with correspondence 73 76 Balance due the artist $1,186 91 126 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. HON. CARROLL D. WRIGHT delivered a lecture on "Women in Industry." This was thoughtfully and carefully prepared and listened to with interest. Miss DANGERFIELD, of Virginia, recited an original poem on "The Waking South," which showed her talent as a writer of verse Miss MILLS, of New York, delivered an address on "The Present Political Status of Woman." Miss Mills is one of the young women who has recently taken up the suffrage work in New York State, and is to be congratulated on this occasion. The last address was by Rev. ANNA H. SHAW, on "The America Undiscovered by Columbus." This humorous and logical address seemed a fitting close for the harmonious and strong Convention. Miss ANTHONY in a few appropriate remarks, adjourned the convention sine die. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 127 FRIDAY, January 20, 1893. MORNING SESSION. The last Executive Committee meeting was held at National Headquarters, 1328 I street northwest, at 10 A. M. The first business was the election of a number of Honorary Vice-Presidents.* It was voted that MOLLIE McGEE SNELL and REBECCA HENRY HAYES be the Vice-Presidents of this association for Mississippi and Texas, respectively, and that the choice of the Vice-Presidents for the two remaining unorganized Southern States be left to the Southern members. It was voted, on motion of Miss CLAY, that the Corresponding Secretary send to the Executive Committee of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association a courteous and cordial invitation to become auxiliary to the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Mrs. MAMIE MARBLE was elected vice-president for New Mexico, and HANNAH CLAPP vice-president for Nevada. It was voted that the appointment of the vice-presidents for Arizona and Oklahoma be left to Mrs. JOHNS; for Delaware, to Mrs. AVERY; for North Dakota, to Mrs. COLBY, and for Idaho, to Miss ANTHONY. Mrs. UPTON was empowered to condense the State reports. It was voted, on motion of Mrs. Avery, that this association recommend to the Woman's National Council to establish a Woman's Lecture Bureau, and agrees *This list will be found near the end of the volume, with the officers and committees. The letter written to the Executive Committee of Wisconsin is to be found in "The Notes" just preceding the State reports. 128 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. if this be done to bear its pro rata portion of the expenses. It was voted, on motion of Miss GILLETTE, that pending the establishment of such a bureau by the Council, we recommend to our auxiliary associations the Woman's Lecture Bureau of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which Miss LUCY E. ANTHONY is manager. It was voted, on motion of Miss CLAY, that the Business Committee be asked to consider seriously the practicability of sending a lecturer through Arkansas and Mississippi, at the expense of this association. It was voted that next year the treasurer's report be closed on January 1st; books audited and report ready for annual convention. It was voted that unfinished business be left to the Business Committee. Adjourned. The Business Committee met at the Willard Hotel Friday afternoon ; the principal work being the appointment of committees for the year.* It was voted to drop the Committees on Territories, Badge, and on Governors' Opinions. A vote of thanks was passed to Miss MARY H. WILLIAMS for her able and interesting paper. It was voted to re-engage the present headquarters, and to empower the Committee on National Headquarters to rent the room for an hour or two a day, at her discretion. It was voted that the next annual meeting be held in February, and begin on Thursday, and that LUCY E. ANTHONY make the best terms she can for hall, etc., using her own judgment. *These will be found with the list of officers near the end of the book. NOTES. On Friday evening, February 20th, in honor of the National Association, the District Suffrage Association gave a reception to all suffrage friends. Mrs. Tindall, president of this society, presented the guests to the national officers who, with Sarah Freeman Clark and Dr. Caroline B. Winslow, made up the receiving party. For two hours the parlors of the Willard Hotel were crowded with people particularly anxious to pay their respects to the veteran workers. Saturday evening Clara B. Colby gave a reception in her new home on Tenth street to the delegates and friends who remained in the city. Thus was furnished an opportunity to see the new quarters of the Woman's Tribune and to congratulate the editor upon her change of location. During the convention letters and telegrams of congratulations and sympathetic encouragement were received from- H. C. and Ada M. Bittenbender, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, Lincoln, Neb. Sarah M. Cotes, president Equal Suffrage Club, Kansas City, Mo. Lorenzo Westover, Clyde, Kans. Laura Hurd Bailey, Dunlap, Iowa. Alfred H. Love, Philadelphia, Pa. Josephine K. Henry, Versailles, Ky. Sarah Burger Stearns, Duluth, Minn. Cecelia Hedenberg, Chicago, Ill. Louise M. Harris, Clear Lakes, S. Dak. Lina M. Hoffman, Philadelphia, Pa. Alice H. Peters, Columbus, Ohio Dr. Henderson, Columbus, Ohio Sarah Kimball, Utah Annie Besant, London, England. Just previous to the convention Catharine A. F. Stebbins, of Detroit made an effort to secure contributions to the Association, and before the convention had adjourned she sent in sixty dollars.* Mrs. Stebbins was unable to be present, but her effort was appreciated by all who knew the fact. She is one of the original suffragists, having been present at the convention of 1848. Miss Julia A. Wilbur, of Washington, secured twenty members to the Association, at $1 each, before the opening of the convention. These facts are mentioned here that all friends may know what two women who are on our list of Hon. Vice-presidents have done for our Association this year. The financial report of this year, of course, cannot be given until the next convention, but your treasurer would like to report the following persons as paying into the treasury before February 1st, 1893, contributions to the amount of $5: Lucretia L. Blankenburg, Julia A. Myers, Hannah E. Longshore, Philadelphia, Pa ; Eveleen L. Mason, Brookline, Mass. ; Susan J. Cheney, South *Mrs. Stebbins has lately added $20 to this amount. 9 W S 130 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Manchester, Conn.; Martha Mott Lord, New York city; Sallie Tod, Youngstown, Ohio; John W. Cameron, Isabella Cameron. Philadelphia, Pa.; Mr. John Ward, Calistra G. Hart, Ada P. Lathrop, Detroit, Mich.; Senator H. C. Hansbrough, North Dakota; Elmor C. McKell, Chillicothe, Ohio; Mrs. E. B. Ingalls, St. Louis, Mo.; L. B. Colson, Fremont, Neb.; Mary O. Arnold, Chepachot, R. I.; F. M. Callo, Jersey Heights, N. J.; Charlotte S. Pierce, Philadelphia, Pa.; Elizabeth Pierce, Boston, Mass.; Sarah B. Stearns, Duluth; Dr. Jennie Medley, Philadelphia, Pa.; General and Mrs. Casement, Painesville, Ohio; Frederick and Mrs. Douglass, Anacostia, D. C.; Agnes Kemp, Swarthmore, Pa.; Mrs. McCullough Everhard, Massillon, Ohio; Florence B. Mayhew, Emily Mayhew. Those to the amount of $10: Lucy W. Curtis, New York city; Mary S. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y.; Anna C. Mott, Toledo, Ohio; Maria Mott Davis, Boston, Mass.; Abby L. Faulkner, Santa Barbara, Cal. Utah Territory, aside from fees: Mary Stevens, Warren, Ohio; Harriet Stevens, Warren, Ohio; Mrs. Skidmore, Lily Dale, N. Y.; Marilla Ricker, Dover, N. H.; Olivia B. Hall, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Fanny A. Mulliken, Detroit, Mich. To the amount of $25: Emma J. Bartol, Philadelphia, Pa.; Armenia S. White, Concord, N. H.; Louisa Southworth, Cleveland, Ohio; Hon. Thos. W. Palmer, Detroit, Mich. To the amount of $50: Sarah L. Willis, Rochester, N. Y. To the amount of $100: James Jackson,* by will, per William I. Bowditch, Boston, Mass. ---- Bishop Hurst and Dr. Buckley, of the Methodist Church, were each invited to take part in the programme of the convention. Both refused, Dr. Buckley saying he had engagements for that week, but if he had not, he adds: "What hope could I cherish of making a convert in such an environment? The very courtesy- a refinement of pity and mercy- would make my aim unsteady. Generously I appreciate the invitation, and would enjoy being present, but it is impossible." * * * Bishop Hurst says: "It would give me pleasure to accept your kind invitation to participate in the symposium at the coming convention of the Woman Suffrage Association, but I shall be unable to do so. I have the fullest sympathy with your work and have had for many years. I believe every year brings nearer the great achievement when women shall have the right of the ballot, if they please to use it. But I am strictly prohibited from all public work by my physician; and though I do not see the full reason for it, still I must obey. "Wishing you great success in your convention, and in all your noble work, I am, yours sincerely, JOHN F. HURST." ------ Our Twenty-sixth Annual Convention will be held in Metzerott's Hall, corner of 12th and F Streets N. W., Washington D. C. The dates are from Thursday, February 15th, to Thursday, the 22d. --- *Mr. Jackson was the son of the noble Francis Jackson, who, in 1856, placed $5,000 in the hands of our best friend-Wendell Phillips- to help on the work for Woman Suffrage; and the brother of Mrs. Eliza J. Eddy who bequeathed the residuary of her estate, inherited from her father-$48,000-to Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony to be used, at their discretion, in furthering our good cause. And the Editor has heard Miss Anthony say, that she expended every dollar of her half of that magnificent bequest in publishing the first edition-2,000 copies- of "The History of Woman Suffrage," and that she had placed fully 1,000 sets of those three huge volumes, of 1,000 pages each, on the shelves of as many of the great libraries of the Old World and the New. MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 131 Since the close of the Convention the Business Committee have voted that five hundred dollars be paid Rachel Foster Avery for clerk hire for 1893. --- Heretofore the State societies have been expected to report to the National body work done in the States during the year. Since these reports were not regularly recorded or kept for future reference, they were sufficient, but now that the National Association intends to make its printed report a hand-book for suffrage workers, more comprehensive reports are necessary. Women working in a State are apt to think that the workers in other States are acquainted with the laws in their State, and do not think it necessary to refer to them. The letters of inquiry which have come to National Headquarters this year have proven this to be a mistake. For instance, nearly all suffragists know that Illinois has lately been granted school suffrage, and that there was contention before the act was admitted to be legal; yet very few women, outside of Illinois, know exactly all the circumstances connected with the passage of this law. What is true of one State is true of all. In order that in another year all States may show their full strength, and that the National Society may possess itself of needed information, the States are asked to include in their usual State reports answers to the following questions: Do the laws of your State allow women to vote at any elections? If so, what? Are the conditions the same for women as for men? Can women of your State be voted for? How many women have you in office? How many women have you who are county superintendents? How many local auxiliary societies are in your State? How many non-auxiliary societies are there in your State? Give the amount of taxes paid by the women of your State? Do you hold conventions at your State capital during the sessions of your legislature? What plan of work did your State decide upon this year? In your State do women receive the same pay as men who perform the same labor? How did the vote of women last year compare with that of men? Whom does your law recognize as the natural guardian of children? REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES ALABAMA Prepared by Mrs. E. S. Hildreth, President. Ready by Laura Clay. Last April in Decatur a suffrage club was organized, which has increased in number from five to fifteen. Suffrage literature has been sent to the legislature, and it is hoped a bill favorable to suffrage will be introduced. This association has purchased and distributed tracts and leaflets. Very recently another club has been organized at Verbena. Both these societies are auxiliary to the National American. ARKANSAS Prepared by Clara A. McDiarmid, President. Read by Mary A. Davis Little Rock is the only working auxiliary. Conway is working quietly and Hot Springs taking interest in the subject. It is expected that societies will soon be organized both there and at Fort Smith and Eureka Springs. An evening lecturer is needed. Men are more sympathetic than women, and ministers and business men would help to make the lecture a success. A few of the members of the legislature are pledged to work for municipal suffrage. The good the Woman's Chronicle is doing is beyond estimation. The Columbia Club movement is the greatest medium yet opened to women. CALIFORNIA The California Woman Suffrage Association sent in no report of work done. A suffrage bill is now pending in the California Legislature, supported by petitions bearing 15,000 signatures, collected by the W. C. T. U. Nellie Holbrook Blynn, the delegate, reported that men and women were paid equal wages for equal work in this State, and that what is needed is some one to work on this question, and that with proper work there would be a larger representation in California than in any other State in the Union. COLORADO Prepared by H. Jennie James. Read by Mrs. Owens. The work of the State Woman Suffrage Association for the past year has been largely educational. Topics of public interest have been presented and studied at its meetings. It has prepared three bills for this year's legislature; one for equal suffrage, one to amend the State school law so that half the members of school boards shall be women, and one to amend the "special charter" of Denver so that half the school board of that city shall be women. The association contributed to the fund for the busts of Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony, and Mrs. Mott; also toward the expenses of the N. W. C. T. U. convention. The Governor of Colorado, in his inaugural address, just issued, says: "About eight years ago * a law was passed giving the women of Colorado the right to vote at school district elections; and inasmuch as since that time the heavens have not fallen, and the efficiency of the public schools has greatly improved. I recommend a law extending to the women of Colorado the right of suffrage at all municipal elections." * The Constitution of Colorado, adopted in 1876, secured to women their citizen's right to vote at school district elections. Therefore, it was sixteen, not eight, years ago. REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES 133 CONNECTICUT Frances Ellen Burr, Secretary. Read by Mrs. Rogers The State Woman Suffrage Association held its twenty-third annual meeting at Meriden in November last. The two active clubs of Hartford and Meriden form the bulk of its membership. At an executive meeting in November a committee was appointed to prepare a little book giving the constitution and by-laws of both the State and the local societies and much useful information for those who may wish to form clubs through the State. Mrs. Hooker has it in charge and it will be published soon. The Hartford club has more than one hundred members, about half of them paid up. It meets regularly, and has lectures, papers, discussions, etc., with occasional banquets and picnics. The Meriden Club has a large membership, meets regularly, has had a number of good lectures, and does State fair work every year with excellent results. It was through the Meriden Club that Miss E. U. Yates was invited to address the State Grange at its annual meeting, and after her address the Grange passed a strong suffrage resolution. Two-thirds of the women in our State are, at heart, in favor of suffrage. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Prepared and read by Helen R. Tindall, President The District Woman Suffrage Association has held well-attended monthly meetings, with fifteen minutes at each devoted to parliamentary drill, followed by vigorous discussion of live questions. It has tried in vain to get an opponent of suffrage, from Congress or elsewhere, to come and present the other side. It has petitioned and worked for a bill to recompense Anna Ella Carroll. It helped to secure from Congress an appropriation of $35, 000 to found a reformatory for girls, which has, however, been put in charge of a board of men only. A bill drafted by a member of the association (Miss Gillette) to relieve the disabilities of married women in business in the District has passed the Senate and is being urged in the House with good prospects of success. Last July an act was passed to provide for dependent children and to create a board of children's guardians in the District. Of the nine members of the board threen are women. Three committees of the association have just been appointed; one to try to secure more police matrons (there are nine police stations in the District and only three matrons); one to urge the appointment of a woman as school trustee, and one to work for the appointment of a woman physician on the list of doctors to the poor. FLORIDA Prepared and read by Ella F. Chamberlain, President The new organization in this State of the far South called itself the baby until Virginia was organized later during the convention. The suffrage organization grew out of enthusiasm generated in Mrs. Chamberlain's mind at the Interstate Conference at Des Moines. Mrs. Chamberlain asked space in the leading paper in Tampa for a woman's department. The editor said she would like to have women give their views on things that interested them and their children. Mrs. Chamberlain told her that as the world was not suffering for another cake recipe and the children seemed to be getting along better than the women, suffrage only would be her theme. Permission was granted, the editor disclaiming being in any sense of the word, a "woman's rights" woman. At a social party on the 134 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. 5th of January, Mrs. Chamberlain was invited to give a recitation, which she did by making a woman suffrage speech, showing the reasons why she wished to vote. Mrs. Chamberlain is a tax payer and a descendant of revolutionary ancestors, and feels keenly the fact of disfranchisement while two thousand Cubans in her ward exercise the franchise, many of them not being citizens. The enthusiasm aroused by her speech was such that a gentleman present moved the organization of a suffrage society. This was effected with twenty members, eight of them men. Mrs. Ella C. Chamberlain, president; Mr. O. G. Sexton, secretary; Miss Stowell, treasurer. The secretary has assumed control of the other important newspaper in Tampa, which will give opportunity for the dissemination of the suffrage news. GEORGIA. [Prepared by H. Augusta Howard, President. Read by Miriam Howard DuBose.] The membership has increased slightly during the year. Over 6,000 pages of literature have been distributed; 52 articles published; 216 letters written by the president. Requests to editors for space have mostly been refused. Mrs. Sophia L. Ober Allen and Mrs. Miriam Du Bose have also distributed literature. Effort was made to have suffragists throughout the State write to their Congressman requesting him to support the Federal Suffrage bill. Numerous copies of the Woman's Tribune, Woman's Chronicle and Woman's Column have received and scattered. H. Augusta Howard, of Columbus, is president of the association. ILLINOIS. [Prepared by Mary E. Holmes, President. Read by Lizzie F. Long.] Women have exercised their new right of school suffrage all over the State, in large numbers, and in the face of great difficulties. Before passing the bill giving school suffrage to women, the legislature had passed another bill establishing the Australian ballot system and providing for supplying men with ballots and ballot-boxes, but making n provision for ballots for the women, as they were not then voters. Hence, in many cases the women had to provide their own ballots and ballot-boxes. It was also loudly claimed that the school suffrage law was unconstitutional, and in some places the women were not allowed to vote. The Supreme Court has since affirmed the constitutionality of the law. The exercise of the school suffrage and the resulting agitation have roused the women all over the State, and they are calling for lecturers faster than they can be supplied. Mrs. DeVoe made a very successful tour of southern Illinois in November and December and will work all through February. Fourteen of the twenty districts of the State have active superintendents who are pushing the work of organization. The State paper, the Illinois Suffragist, flourishes, with the generous aid of Senator Castle. The State superintendent of legislative work, Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch, a lawyer in good standing, who commands respect, has been interviewing the Cook County legislators. The State association last year declared for the submission of an amendment, but left it to the discretion of the legislative superintendent to change the plan later, if it seemed advisable. An effort will probably be made for township suffrage, which would cover both country and city. Much is hoped from the suffrage speeches at the World's Fair. REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 135 INDIANA [Prepared by Helen M. Gougar, President. Read by Alice Stone Blackwell.] The past year has marked much increased sentiment in favor of woman suffrage in Indiana. In addition to a large amount of literature distributed by the president of the association, there has been much discussion of the subject by speakers, notably those of the Prohibition party and Populists. Both of these parties put strong declarations favorable to suffrage in their platforms, and their papers and speakers boldly advocated its speedy adoption. These parties combined polled about forty thousand votes at the recent election. In the present legislature special committees on the "Political Rights of Women" have been asked and we hope to have the prayer granted by both houses. Bills asking for presidential and municipal suffrage will be presented. Mrs. Waugh, of Tipton, added: We have in our city a suffrage club equal to any in this country. It is composed not only of women, but of men -- some of the best men in the city, and people are beginning to feel that they are on the unpopular side if they are not in favor of suffrage. Our club is composed of lawyers, judges, bankers and doctors, and now we have the leading physician of our city as president. At first we intended it should be officered entirely be women, but the gentlemen came in and were so obedient and docile that we thought we would divide honors, so we have an equal suffrage club in every sense of the word. We divide the work equally. We give suffrage to them in broken doses. Two or three times a year we have papers on this subject and we have made very earnest converts in this club. IOWA. No regular report was sent in from Iowa, but Mrs. Upton said that any State which had paid her dues early, and large dues, too, and which had accomplished so much as Iowa had accomplished at the Mississippi Valley Conference, must not be omitted in the report of this convention. She said all earnest suffragists knew of the success of that conference, and Mrs. Chamberlain, of Florida, and Mrs. Snell, of Mississippi, have each admitted that its effect had been inspiring to them. In a personal letter, Mrs. Bailey, superintendent of press work, says: "Our club (Dunlap) numbers 162 paid members and our town has only 1,000 inhabitants. Iowa only reported last year 500 paid-up members. At the next annual meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association Dunlap is determined it shall have 2,500. We have used the State enrollment and found it very useful. I hope our State report will reach you, for we have a good report to make, with our twenty-five fair days, Mississippi Valley Conference, and four speakers that were sent out by the State. The enrollment work well begun, press work, new clubs organized, and the amount of money raised quite large, too. All this I hope will be properly sent to the National Convention."* KANSAS. t [Prepared by Laura M. Johns, President. Read by Jennie Broderick.] ______________________________________________________________________ * But up to March 1st no report had been received by the Editor. t The report of Kansas work is found on page 69. 136 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. KENTUCKY. [Prepared by Eugenia B. Farmer, Secretary. Read by Laura Clay, President.] The report of the fourth annual State convention, recently printed in the Tribune, shows an increase of interest throughout the state. Miss Laura Clay and Mrs. Josephine K. Henry have lectured in various parts of the State. Mrs. Henry has delivered fifteen lectures, kept up a department in the Southern Journal, besides writing fifty-six articles for other papers. Mrs. Eugenia B. Farmer, the corresponding secretary, lectured at Bellevue, with the result that a minister present expressed himself as a converted man and that he would hereafter work and preach for the emancipation of women. Mrs. Farmer, as superintendent of school suffrage work, centered her efforts on Covington, Newport and Lexington. A committee of one gentleman from each of these cities was appointed by their city counsel to draft a suitable character. This, which is now before the legislature for discussion, provides that women shall be eligible as members of the Board of Education and qualified to vote at any and all elections of said board. Personal appeals have been made to the Committees on Education and Revision, to the superintendent of public instruction and to members of the legislature in behalf of this bill. When this bill was first printed it was discovered by a member of the Lexington Suffrage Association that the woman suffrage clause had been dropped, and hastening to the member who had drawn up the charter for Lexington she secured the reprinting of the bill. Widows and spinsters have already by statue law in Kentucky the right to vote for school trustees, but when a city is governed by a charter no woman can exercise the right unless the charter so states. School suffrage petitions have been well circulated throughout the State and have received thousands of signatures. The special work of the legislative committee, Mrs. S. H. Sawyer, Josephine K. Henry, Mrs. B. F. Avery and Laura Clay, is to urge the passage of bills for property rights of married women and for women physicians in the lunatic asylums of the State. Addresses in behalf of these bills were made in Representative Hall, Frankfort, February 10th, 1892. About four thousand pages of literature have been distributed during the year. LOUISIANA. [Prepared by Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, President. Read by Susan B. Anthony.] Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon has been elected president of the State association. With all the new life which seems coming into the South Louisiana hopes to organize a number of clubs this year.* MAINE. [Prepared and read by Hannah J. Bailey, President.] There has been no legislature in session the past year, but the question has been agitated by lectures, press work, private conversation, and distribution of literature. In February Mrs. S. S. Fessenden was secured to lecture in Portland, and gave addresses also in several other places. Last winter a suffrage club of fifty-six members was organized in Portland, and is doing good work. Several clubs have been organized or reviewed in other localities. From all sides form reports of a marked increase in suffrage sentiment. Petitions for municipal suffrage are in circulation throughout the State. The president of the State association, Mrs. Han- ______________________________________________________ *Delegates expected to come to the convention, but were detained. REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 137 nah J. Bailey, has written to the tax collector of every town in Maine, asking how many women pay taxes in that town, and to what amount. To the 500 letters written, 221 replies have been received, and more are coming in by every mail. The facts already reported show that 9,774 women pay taxes on $8,433,440.06. Mrs. Bailey also asked each tax collector if he knew any reason why women should not have the municipal vote; 157 answered "No," 12 answered "Yes," and 52 were non-committal. Women in Maine are not recognized as people, except by the sheriff and tax-gatherer. A mother has no legal control of her legitimate children after the age of infancy. A father can will away his children to a guardian with the consent of the judge of probate. A father may be the guardian of his children although he remarries repeatedly, but a mother can only be the guardian of her children while she remains a widow. A man can invest all his property in timber land and leave his wife a pauper, as a widow has no dower right in such lands. The age of protection of girls remains at fourteen, in spite of the women's effort to raise it to eighteen. But there is a steady and healthy growth of public opinion in favor of equal rights for women, and members of all parties who used to be opposed have declared themselves in favor.* MARYLAND. [Prepared and ready by Mary Bentley Thomas.] Out association has only been in existence four years, and nearly all of its members reside in Montgomery County. Its membership has increased from twelve to fifty, one-fourth of whom are men and youths. We are pleased to see husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons attending and addressing our meetings. By personal solicitation two women and one man were induced to join us last week, and we laid siege, which will only be raised on surrender of the besieged, to one family in Harford, one in Baltimore, and one in Montgomery. Only yesterday came a bright letter from an Eastern Shore woman who desired a full report of the convention mailed to her, and when we send the bill she will be attended to, as she informed us she had been a suffragist for thirty years. For the benefit of those who believe that such doctrines render a women unmotherly, we will state that, since losing two precious babes, she has adopted five children in succession, so it is evident she was not spoiled by having ideas, and knowing, to quote Mrs. Jameson, that "two and two make four for a man but sometimes only three for a woman." We freely admit that Maryland has accomplished her full share of "sweet doing nothing" in the world's progress, but a better day is dawning-nay, it has already dawned when a Baltimore woman gives more than one quarter of a million dollars to the Johns Hopkins University to establish a medical college for women equal to that, in every respect, for men. Our full enfranchisement will be a short step compared to other changes in public opinion. A sign of the times is the appointment of police matrons in Baltimore. In vary many States the police matron has been the entering wedge of our progress. Our greatest obstacle here, south of "Mason and Dixon," is not found in the people who actively oppose us, but in the indifference to the subject. Could we make it as attractive and as fashionable as are physical culture, dress reform, Browning classes, and cooking clubs hundreds might swell our rank ; but, unfortunately for us, there is nothing so flimsy in material and yet so hard to combat as an intangible dislike based upon a lack of knowledge of our real principles and pur- ______________________________________________________ *The editor adds to this report that after our last national meeting Jane Spofford sent a House and Senate report to each member of the Maine legislature. 138 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION poses. Therefore we beseech the National Association to spare us occasionally in the future and or raider and an organizer, who, working hand-in-hand, shall spread the new gospel of a noble or woman heard from the Susquehanna to the Potomac and from the Alleghanies to the Atlantic. Well there are seamstresses with in our porters making shirts at fifty cents a dozen; while our women clerks, typewriters, and teachers receive in some cases only half what is freely paid a man for the same kind of amount of service; while no one on earth can solve the problem of what becomes of all the money raised for roads and public schools; wow many of our county almshouses and jails are a nuisance and a disgrace to the community; while upon our statutes is spread the law, "Any father may bind out his child as an apprentice," and while the child is what I'll can legally occupy the home, which may rightfully be hers, but one short month after that to see if her husband, our little pioneer band cannot abate one jot nor one title of a righteousness claim for "equal pay and equal say." MASSACHUSETTS. [Prepared by Lucy Stone, President. Read by Henry B. Blackwell.] The Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Associate has petitioned for municipal suffrage, presidential suffrage, and the abolition of the poll-tax as a qualification for women voting for school committee, the poll-tax qualification for men having been already abolished. Three legislative hearings were given. The pole-tax requirement for women was abolished. Municipal suffrage was defeated; a bill to allow women to vote on the license question was defeated, 96 to 93; and in the Senate a bill was defeated that propose to permit a wife to bring an action against her husband, at law or in equity, for any matter relating to her separate property or estate. While the suffrage bill was pending, and appeal in its favor, signed by Julia Ward Howe, Lucy Stone, and Mary A. Livermore, was sent to every editor in the State, with the request to publish it; and a number did so. A letter was addressed to every clergyman in Boston, asking him either to preach on women suffrage himself, or to allow the subject to be presented to his congregation by speaker to be furnished by the association. In response to this request a number of ministers preached on equal suffrage, and others open their churches for meetings. A State organizer was kept in the field for six months; conventions were held at Warren and Fall River; six new leaflets were published, besides new editions of old ones; suffrage literature was sent to every member of the legislature, to ministers of various denominations, and no nearly all the college students in the State. The association has adopted a revised constitution, providing for a delegate basis and the per capita representation of the local auxiliaries, thus raising the State dues to the National-American from $30 last year to within a few cents of $90 this year. The vote of women for school committee in Boston shows an increase of 4,000 over last year and the women elected the entire Republican school ticket, while all the other branches of the city government went Democratic. MASSACHUSETTS-NATIONAL. [Prepared and ready by Lavina A. Hatch, Recording Secretary.] Soon after the last Washington convention, the association, at the suggestion of its charter members Dr. Salome Merritt, prepared blanks with the following formula, and sent them out, each accompanied by a letter of instructions to every representative district in which one or more members of the association resided: REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 139 We, the undersigned, agree to unite ourselves in a body, for the sole purpose of working for the election of legislators who are in favor of municipal suffrage for women, and otherwise suitable. In pursuance of this object, we agree to leave out of discussion in this organization all questions pertaining to topics not bearing directly on municipal suffrage. Each district association shall be free to work for the election of the legislators above referred to according to the method agreed-upon in each district by the members thereof. This compact shall not be understood as limiting any signer's right as an individual to work with any political party, or in any outside organization. These were circulated during the summer, and in September the reports show that districts were in process of organization in six counties. In April the Boston Political Class, with expressions of appreciation and gratitude, expressed a wish to dissolve its connection with the parent association, and become independent. This was at once acceded to. The Suffrage Association and Political Class still carry on their work as before, but are now separate and independent organizations. In September, Mrs. H. R. Shatiuck resigned the presidency of the association. Mrs. Sarah S. P. Dickerman has been chosen to act as president pro tem. for the rest of the year. The association has continued to carry on its routine work. It has petitioned Congress and the State legislature, and the petition from the third Plymouth district was especially well circulated. In one small village forty-one signatures were obtained, and only four persons refused to sign. MICHIGAN. [Prepared by Emily B. Ketcham, President. Read by Harriet M. Mills] The Michigan Equal Suffrage Association reports increased interest and activity, and several new auxiliary associations. The annual convention in Battle Creek last May was of unusual interest, and this year's convention is to be held in Lansing, in February, to influence the legislature. Mrs. Helen Philleo Jenkins, of Detroit, arranged a series of five lectures in ten different cities of the State. The speakers were : Lide Meriwether, Carrie Lane Chapman, Clara Bewick Colby, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, and Susan B. Anthony. The effort to secure municipal suffrage for tax-paying women in the new city charter of Detroit finds strong support.* MINNESOTA. [Prepared by Julia B. Nelson, President. Read by the Secretary.] Minnesota has had more suffrage lectures than any previous year; forty-two by the State president, and a number by distinguished speakers from outside. A suffrage convention was held during the national Republican convention, and addresses were made by the women alternatives from Wyoming and others. At the Minneapolis exposition a suffrage booth was maintained, where literature was distributed, petitions were signed, and subscriptions were taken for suffrage papers. One new local auxiliary association has been formed. Three delegates were sent to the Mississippi Valley Conference, at Des Moines. Women have school suffrage and whole school offices. Women voted on the issuance of school bonds in some towns, including Red Wing, but the city attorney of Red Wing decided that they were not entitled to do so, and the state Attorney General declined to pronounce upon the constitutionality of the matter in the absence of an official request for his opinion by the city officers of Red Wing. The Women's Council of Minneapolis made a strong effort for a woman on the school board, and succeeded. The association is trying for municipal suffrage with an educational qualification. ______________________________________________________________________________ *It was unfortunate that the annual convention occurred immediately after the National Convention. Had it been otherwise, this report would have shown more work.-Ed. 140 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. MISSOURI. [Prepared by Virginia Hedges, President. Read by Rev. Anna H. Shaw.] For many years Mr. and Mrs. Minor were the leading workers in Missouri. Last spring at the Interstate Convention, held in Kansas City, the offices of the State society were filled by younger women; and Mrs. Minor, Mrs. Beverly Allen, and Mrs. Hazard were made honorary presidents. At the same time a large club was formed in Kansas City, with Mrs. Sarah Coates president. Soon after another excellent club was organized in Carthage, while the oldest and most efficient club of Springfield voted itself auxiliary to the State society. The work is only in its infancy. Lectures by Rev. Anna H. Shaw and Clara Hoffman have borne fruit. Work has been done in the suffrage department of the W.C.T.U. Petitions are now being circulated asking the State legislature to submit an amendment allowing women citizens to vote. We feel we are started on a firm basis. NEBRASKA. [Prepared by Clara B. Colby, President. Read by Mrs. Warner.] The annual meeting last year was held at Pender, whose citizens had generously subscribed enough to pay all expenses. The president of this district, Getty W. Drury, is especially active. The annual meeting would this year have been held in January at the capital had it not been for the National Convention coming at this time. Municipal suffrage is the chief effort with the present legislature, and Helen M. Goff, the corresponding secretary, is at Lincoln in charge of the work and receiving petitions for the law. The W. C. T. U. include municipal suffrage as a part of their legislative work under the charge of their superintendent of legislation, Mrs. Zara A. Wilson. A WOman's Day was again arranged at the Long Pine Chautauqua, and for the first time at the Beatrice Chautauqua, and at both places, also at the Twin City Chautauqua, Nebraska, Women Suffrage Association headquarters were established. The president of the State society sent out a list of questions to all the district presidents to learn the exact conditions of the work and the prospect of organization, receiving full reply only from Mrs. Miriam Baird Buck, president of the fifth district. Her chief effort has been to secure an assistant for each county according to the plan of work adopted by the State last year. The difficulty in accomplishing this and the failure of other officers to make the effort which would mean so much toward securing an organization of the State can only be accounted for by the fact that these women are mostly giving their first loyalty to other organizations. Miss Helen Goff, the corresponding secretary, is devoting the energy and talents of her youth to this work, performing not only the duties of her office well, but keeping suffrage headquarters at the State fair and other places and representing the association at the Mississippi Valley Conference and at political conventions held in the State. The strongest auxiliary is that at Chadron, and this has offered prizes for suffrage essays which have aroused much interest.* ------ *Since the report, of which the above is an abstract, was given, word comes from Lincoln that the bill to confer full suffrage has been placed on general file in the House by a vote of 44 to 38. The municipal suffrage bill was placed on general file in the House without opposition, being favorably reported by the committee, and in the Senate was placed on general file by a vote of 19 to 13. REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 141 NEW HAMPSHIRE. New Hampshire sent no written report, but Mrs. Ricker gave an account of the press work, thought the situation was encouraging, and paid tribute to the State president, Mrs. White, and to Senator J. H. Gallinger, and Hon. Henry W. Blair. NEW JERSEY. [Prepared by Amelia Dickinson Pope. Read by Dr. Mary Hussey.] The New Jersey Society has held few meetings during the year 1892. Organization has been imperfect. There appears no evidence of antagonism, but rather indifference and apathy in regard to the matter of political equality. It is believed that much more may be done through the newspapers by calling the attention of thoughtful people to the needs of reform in all departments of township, county, and State governments than in any other way. During the coming year, under the skillful leadership of Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, assisted by Mrs. Katharine Browning as vice- president, we hope that considerable enthusiasm may be awakened. New Jersey has school suffrage, and women tax-payers voted lately at Roselle on the question of sewage. A considerable amount of suffrage literature has been distributed, both of suffrage papers and Congressional documents. NEW YORK. [Prepared and read by the President, Jean Brooks Greenleaf.] We come to you t-day with nineteen delegates, a gain of two over last year. I am glad to say that these nineteen stand for a much larger amount of suffrage interest than the number would indicate. Chautauqua county which last year you denominated the banner county of the country, has not lowered her colors in the State, though closely pressed by Cattaraugus and Wyoming counties in activity. The club of Syracuse first organized in August last with seventeen members, in four months' time increased to one hundred and two. We found the plan, adopted last year, of securing a Woman's Day at the county and State fairs, to be of great benefit. Large numbers who would not be induced to enter a church or lecture room to hear equal suffrage discussed, will stop on the fairgrounds to listen to a bright speaker. For these days the very best speakers are required; those of clear logic and ready wit- for wit serves as a rivet to fasten a logical point in mind. The question of woman's political position has been taken up more largely this year than ever before. Chautauqua- the literary Chautauqua- did wonders for it last summer by securing Rev. Anna H. Shaw to speak for woman suffrage one day, and the Rev. Dr. Buckley- of anti- woman representation in the church renown- to reply to Miss Shaw on the succeeding day; no reply to Dr. Buckley being permitted. This arrangement was in direct violation of the old law that "women must follow, not lead through life;" but the plan worked admirably. At the summer assembly at Cassadaga Lake a day was given to women. Many other effective meetings were held beside the county conventions which I would gladly mention. And here I would like to say a word about conventions. I think their influence can hardly be overstated. The opportunity afforded at such times for consultation regarding methods of organized work and the inspiration derived from coming in touch with minds alive with the same bright vision of liberty clears the brain and strengthens the heart; but holding conventions goes for naught if, after the suffrage seed is sown by them, we do not hasten to put in a good hor- 142 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. horticulturist's work in organizing clubs; or, if that has already been done, in gathering into these clubs those whose interest has been awakened, and then adopting such study and plans of work as will not allow that interest to flag. Work, work, work! The price we pay for liberty is not only eternal vigilance but eternal labor. The story of our State convention in Syracuse has been told in the columns of our suffrage papers, but the joy and satisfaction it gave to those who had been long in the field cannot be put into words. It was emphatically a convention whose work was done by young people. The old leaders spoke, and the gentle president of the Syracuse Political Equality Club advised and directed, but the young women were everywhere-lifting the load from worn shoulders and giving hope for the future. When there was so much that was commendable I can only say that for three successive evenings and one afternoon a paying audience filled well the commodious opera house. In the afternoon of the last day a feature not common in out conventions was introduced that was excellent. This was a symposium, where not only the advocates of woman suffrage had a hearing, but an opportunity was given for those opposed to it also. The opposition wasably sustained by one man, to whom was accorded double time, of which he made the most, " man's primacy" being the burden, of course. This giving a public hearing to both sides of the question at a time can but commend itself to the mind of every candid person, and I am confident that our cause will not suffer in consequence. The convention was cheered by a telegram from Lady Somerset and Miss Willard, giving words of goodfellowship, to which out national president heartily responded. I must not omit to mention that among the exquisite decorations of the platform at Syracuse Mrs. L. D. Blake thoughtfully placed a portrait of Queen Isabella. In our legislative work there has been great activity on the part of the State, and we have won a measure of success. Chautauqua County sent in a bill last winter that gave suffrage for county school commissioners. It was passed, and women of New York State, therefore, stand second only to Wyoming in the county franchise. A bill was also introduced and I believe passed, which gives married women the same power to contract with their husbands or any other person that the spinster has. Then Mr. Hamilton Willcox formulated a bill, which was introduced by Mr. Yetman, of New York, asking for the franchise for working women -- meaning the remunerated class. This bill, of course, could not pass. No man would vote for a bill enfranchising his women employees and not enfranchising his wife and daughters. But it was plainly evident that something in the way of justice must be done to meet the demands of the women citizens of New York. At least three members of the Assembly went to Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell and invited her to go with them to their committee room, saying that any suffrage bill which she would draw up they would report. She sat with them and framed a bill giving full State suffrage to women. It passed the Assembly with a glorious majority, and was bright for a similar result in the Senate; but in this case realization fell far short of anticipation, for the bill was never permitted to come to a vote there. A bill calling for a constitutional convention during the ensuing year was introduced. Mrs. Blake heard of it and was in winning recognition of some sort of woman, should such a convention be decided on. She succeeded in obtaining a day for a hearing, and Miss Anthony, Mrs. Blake, and Mrs. Howell plead for us, and plead eloquently, but their prayers were not answered, although, as the bill was framed and introduced, a certain number of the delegates were to be appointed by the governor, of which number four men were to represent prohibition, three labor, and three woman suffrage; but in the passage of the measure the last three were REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 143 lost overboard. When the legislature convened this winter, Governor Flower, in his annual message, recommended a revision of the constitutional convention act -- certain points in it having been pronounced unconstitutional-- and among other changes suggested by the governor was that of giving woman suffragists a delegate representation in the convention. An amendment was immediately introduced in the senate which takes away the appointing power from the governor, and called for the election of all the delegates next November, thus deferring the convention until 1894. This amendment calls for two representative delegates each for the Socialists, the Labor and Prohibition parties. It also says clearly: "The electors may elect as a delegate any citizen of this State above the age of twenty-one years" Women are citizens; that fact is established. This bill, if it passes in its present form, will allow women to be elected to the convention. Already there is a demand that our reverend and beloved president be made one of these delegates. The editor of the leading Democratic paper of Rochester urges that, as Miss Anthony is a Republican in politics, she shall be nominated by that party; and he publicly pledges his vote and hearty support if she be so nominated. He further says that if the Republicans do not nominate her, he will in his own paper urge the Democrats to do so. May we not therefore be pardoned for once more seeing a rainbow in our political sky? OHIO. [Prepared by Katherine B. Claypole, Recording Secretary. Read by Martha H. Elwell, Vice President.] During the past year the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association has zealously pursued its work, both legislative and educational. The bill to extend school suffrage to women has been carefully pushed. Fourteen hundred letters were sent throughout the State on this subject. School petitions were actively circulated and eighteen thousand signatures were obtained in about four months.* Letters and documents were sent to every member of the general assembly. A stirring address was given by Rev. Anna H. Shaw in the hall of Representatives, and the officers of the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association next morning interviewed members introduced to them by Mr. Doty. Mrs. Sarah C. Schrader, of Chillicothe, had charge of the legislative work. The committee on elections reported the bill favorably, five of the seven members signing it. When it came before the House it was violently opposed, but so ably defend that it lacked only five votes of a constitutional majority. Mr. Griffin, of Lucas county, changed his vote to a negative and moved a reconsideration. In three weeks it was again brought up before the House when, after a spirited discussion, it was again brought up before the House when, after a spirited discussion, it was returned to the committee. The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association has two reasons for encouragement. The bill received the largest vote set given by an Ohio legislature to a woman suffrage measure, and though it did not carry it was not absolutely defeated. Mr. Doty, Mrs. Schrader, Mrs. Coit and Mrs. Peters are to have charge of the bill this winter. The Honorables Griffin, of Lucas County; Clark, of Cuyahoga; Taylor, of Guernsey, and others, who spoke nobly for the bill last winter, may be relied on to do what they can to help it now. The annual State convention was held at Salem, where forty-two years ago the first Ohio woman suffrage convention met. Mrs. Emily Robinson, the leading spirit of that occasion, was also present on this, and able to [* *This does not include a special petition representing 5,000 names sent direct to a member of the legislature.*] 144 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. say a few words from the platform. Nineteen of the twenty-eight auxiliary societies were represented by delegates, and much enthusiasm was manifested throughout. Two new societies have arisen form the inspiration of this convention, both organized by Dr. Sarah Brooks in the vicinity of her home in Stark County. A full report of this convention was prepared by the recording secretary and two thousand copies were published by the president, with advertisements enough to cover the expense and turn into the treasury the proceeds form the sales. A woman's day was secured at the summer assembly at Hiram College. The State president made the opening address and introduced the speakers, Mrs. Elwell. Professor Mary B. Jewett, and Mrs. Upton. In the evening the Rev. Anna H. Shaw gave her most powerful suffrage lecture, which was received with marked appreciation and enthusiasm. An outward and visible sign of the impetus given by this woman's day, the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association counts one of the three auxiliary societies afterwards organized in the Nineteenth District. A district convention was held in April in south Cleveland by Mrs. S. M. Perkins, then vice president for the Twenty-first Congressional District, and another in Cuyaohga County in September. In October the Nineteenth District met in convention at Akron. Seven of the nine societies it then contained sent delegates and gave satisfactory reports fo their work. A temporary district organization was effected. The sessions were well attended. Enough money was taken at the evening lecture by Rev. Anna H. Shaw to pay the expenses of the convention and put a few dollars into the hands of the district treasurer, and enough enthusiasm was aroused by the convention to form two new societies and throw fresh life into some that were growing weary. There are rumors of more societies for this district and a pressing invitation has been given and accepted for a convention at Geneva, Ashtabula county, in the spring. Activity is also reported from the ninth district under Mrs. Ellen Sully Fray. This district boasts two strong societies in Toledo, the Woman Suffrage Association, of which the president is Mrs. Rosa L. Segur, has made itself felt in the formation of public opinion for twenty-four years, and the Political Equality Club, has, under the leadership of Mrs. Claude Q. Murphy, trebled its membership in its first year, and arraigned a course of public lectures, in which Mrs. Meriwether, Carrie Lane Chapman and Clara B. Colby have already appeared. The enrollment work has been pushed on by Mrs. Louisa Southworth with characteristic energy. It now numbers 24,588 names. (A copy of the record giving the number of signatures obtained in each county has been sent to the Recording Secretary, from which many interesting results may be gleaned for future work.) The roll of societies shows a total of 33. Of these 27 have paid their dues, and on the 582 members they contain, which 42 State members, making a total of 624, the delegation for the State is based. The six missing societies will, doubtless, be heard from before the next State convention. Three of them reported at the last an aggregate membership of 61, and the other three with 23 members between them are not beyond the reach of hope. The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association wishes to acknowledge the direct help given, last winter, by the franchise department fo the W. C. T. U. in the circulation of the petitions for school suffrage and the indirect help conferred by the legislature itself, in two acts important to the interests of women. One of these places a woman physician in every insane asylum in the State. The other brings 264 women into public work by making it mandatory on every judge of Common Pleas to appoint in his country a Board of Visitors to the institutions consisting of three men and three women. These boards act also as guardians to children indentured form the Children's Homes and those threatened with Reform Schools. The Ohio Woman Suffrage Association must also recognized the wave of enthusiasm REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 145 enthusiasm for woman's part in the Columbian Exposition which is leading women all over the State to band themselves together and give to many their first taste of work outside the home or church. Although the Ohio Woman Suffrage Association feels that it should take courage and go forward. OREGON. [Prepared by Abigail Scott Duniway. Read by the Secretary.] Our report is brief, but stirring. We have learned the futility of bombarding our legislature in open warfare, and have so concentrated our forces, sub rosa, that men are fighting our battles for us. A proposed amendment to our State constitution is now before the legislative assembly, and a hard fight is being made by leading members to strike out the word "male" in its election clause. Woman suffragists are keeping themselves conspicuously absent, and only communicating with their gallant co-workers in the two houses by private correspondence. It is too early in the session to definitely state results, but the prospects are fair for resorting our lost prestige, and we are simply in statu quo. But we are not idle, as you will see by our present fight in the legislature, which, if successful, will owe its triumph to our "still-hunt" methods of later years. PENNSYLVANIA. [Prepared and read by Lucretia L. Blankenburg, President.] The Pennsylvania State Suffrage Association was organized nearly twenty-five years ago under the leadership of Mary Grew. Three years ago the question of having a new constitution to conform with the National American Woman Suffrage Association was agitated and finally agreed to. And to-day, under the revised constitution, not yet two months old, our State association is able to report five auxiliaries. But these do not represent our suffrage strength. Pittsburgh and Allegheny both have flourishing societies which we hope will become auxiliaries. But these do not represent our suffrage strength. Pittsburgh and Allegheny both have flourishing societies which we hope will become auxiliary. A Philadelphia local association is being formed in harmony with the new State constitution. At the recent annual meeting encouraging reports from five countries were read, showing a gain over last year. Four counties have been studying the constitution of the State. It has been discovered that an amendment to the constitution will be necessary before women can legally vote under our laws. At Bradford a new Political Equality Club has opened its batteries upon such questions as "the governmental ownership of railroads," "city taxation," "reasons why women should be given the ballot," and the Republican National platform as adopted at Minneapolis. They experimented with a voting booth, the voters being provided with tickets prepared by a local printer. These discussions attracted lawyers, business men, and students of political economy. Two neighboring counties to Philadelphia have made some unsuccessful efforts to secure the election of women school directors. The Philadelphia society held bi-monthly meetings during the past year, which then represented local and State work. The following topics were considered: "Single tac," "woman suffrage and its relation to medical subjects," and "the need of the ballot for working women." At the Granger's annual interstate picnic on woman's work day, Rev. Anna H. Shaw addressed over three thousand people on woman suffrage. We do not have school suffrage in Pennsylvania, but by the courtesy of the voters (as far as we can learn), nine women are serving as school director, two a school commissioners, and one as a county superintendent. [*10 W S *] 146 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. In Philadelphia last year, through the efforts of the public school teachers, all salaries of the teachers were increased $50. We have six factory inspectors-three men and three women-doing equal work and receiving equal compensation. Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have police matrons. In Philadelphia twice during the past year our women have awakened to points of public interest. When the city councils decided in favor of an objectionable trolley-car system, the citizens, men and women, had something to say, and at a town meeting held in the mayor's office our sisters forgot that their husbands did represent them, and actually had ideas on the subject, which they expressed out loud in meeting. The mayor vetoed the bill, but, alas! the court has sustained the city fathers. At another time the colonial dames and other women in town meeting pre- sumed to add their voices in regard to the site for placing of the statue of Washington, donated in part by the Society of the Cincinnati and in part by citizens. A number of our influential women decided to form a corporation, with a stock company, for the purpose of building a club house, and equipping the same to rent as a business of profit. The charter was at first refused, because some of the women making the application were married. After some delay enough single women were found to take out the letters-patent. After the incorporation the original number organized the company, built a fine house, and have made the business pay 5 per cent. the first year to stockholders. One of the members of this board of directors. to save time and money, made application to be appointed notary public. This request was refused, because the applicant was a woman. We learn that the male members of one of our Methodist Episcopal churches, in congregational meeting, decided to ask the court for a new charter, one of its provisions to be the giving of the right of suffrage in church affairs to the women members-this previous to the purchasing of a new property. From the list of State officers you will miss the name of Mary Grew. She is still with us as counselor and friend, but has retired from active work. It is a privilege to be counted one of her friends. At the round number of eighty years in such a life there comes an afterglow that is an inspiration to the younger workers-a guiding light toward honest effort and high ideals of right and justice. RHODE ISLAND. [Prepared by Ellen E. Bolles, Secretary. Read by Mrs. Crandall.] The Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association has carried on active work during the past year. The usual monthly meetings have been held in Providence, addressed by able and interesting speakers. A State agent has been employed, who has given addresses before local woman suffrage leagues and meetings of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and has done much other work that pertains to the office. Last January a memorial to the State legislature was prepared, asking for the passage of a law securing to the women of the State the right to vote for presidential electors. This was presented to the legislature in behalf of the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association. Nine local societies also sent in the same petition. The House committee to whom it was referred gave three hearings on the subject. The chairman thought it possible that the com- mittee would present a favorable report, but finally the petitioners were given leave to withdraw. A solid foundation for the claim of this form of suffrage was laid by the legal and constitutional arguments made by Ed- win C. Pearce, of Providence. Petitioners in other States, who may ask REPORTS FOR AUXILIARY STATES. 147 for presidential suffrage for women, will find their work made easier by obtaining the facts and arguments presented in the pleas made in Rhode Island. There is no doubt that any State legislature could grant this form of suffrage to women if it so desired. It is not constitutions which pre- vent women from obtaining the ballot: it is the unwillingness of men to to allow them to have it. At the May session of the Legislature the association became incorporate. We have a new constitution which gives local auxiliary societies a per capita delegation to the annual and other business meetings, and makes their presidents and secretaries and one other member, elected by each society respectively, members of the executive committee of the State association. It also provides for the election of officers by ballot. This constitution will go into effect at the annual election in October, 1893. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Chace was again elected president this year. She has held this office twenty-two years. and although eighty-six years af age, it is hoped she will be able to hold it for a number of years longer. Among other works done by the Rhode Island association has been the procuing of several hundred names upon the petition presented to Congress last spring for congressional suffrage for women, and an effort will be made to procure more signatures this winter. The association is at present engaged in an attempt to obtain an enlargement of the legal rights of women. The laws of Rhode Island are being revised and modified by a committee of able lawyers, appointed by the legislature, and the time seems very appropriate for making an attempt in this direction. The association cannot report an increase of membership this year, but it is hoped that by another year, after the new constitution goes into effect, and the local societies become paying auxiliaries to the State association as the State is to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a largely increased number of active workers may be added to its ranks. SOUTH CAROLINA. [Prepared by Virginia D. Young, President. Read by Alice Stone Blackwell.] Mrs. Virginia D. Young, since her appointment last year as vice-presi- dent of the National American Woman Suffrage Association for South Carolina, has organized a South Carolina Equal Rights Association of sixty nine members, residing in Greenville, Beaufort, Lexington, Allendale, Fairfax, Marion, Frogmore, Port Royal, Johnston, Charleston, Columbia, Chitty Peeples, Mt. Pleasant, Sumter, Mt. Joy, Brunson, Aiken, and Abbeville. Mrs. Young has given addresses on suffrage before the State W. C. T. U. and the State Press Association and before a large gathering at Waynesville, N. C.; has written 240 personal letters, sent out 150 par- cels of equal rights literature, subscribed for sixty copies of the Woman's Column and a number of copies of the Woman's Tribune, contributed arti- cles on suffrage to the Charleston News and Courier, Allendale Enterprise, Hampton Guardian, Colleton Courier, Sumter Freeman Palmetto Post, and Bamberg Herald, and has expended $46.39 in carrying on the work. One local auxiliary has been organized, the "Breakfast Table Equal Rights Club of Fairfax." Gen. Robert R. Hemphill, of Abbeville, introduced in the South Carolina Senate an amendment to enable women to vote and hold office. It was the first time the subject had come up in the South Caro- lina legislature, and it received the large vote of 14 ayes to 21 noes. Two hundred of the best women of Columbia filled the gallery and covered Gen. Hemphill's desk with flowers. The constitution of the South Caro- lina Equal Rights Association, drawn up by Mrs. Young, provides for woman suffrage with an educational qualification, and for the promotion of the cause by personal influence, the distribution of literature, and all other practicable methods. 148 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. SOUTH DAKOTA. [Prepared by Irene G. Adams, President. Added to by Alice A. H. Pickler.] The period of discouragement following upon the defeat of the amendment is almost past, and the re-action has set in. The South Dakota Equal Suffrage Association held a successful annual meeting at Hastings. Mrs. Wardall, the State secretary, tried to secure a woman's day at the State fair and the Madison Chautauqua, without success; but the latter gave one day to the W. C. T. U., and upon that day equal rights were strongly advocated. Throughout the efforts of the suffragists, Mrs. Susan Hassell was nominated for State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the Independent party. The State president, Mrs. Irene G. Adams, has compiled a leaflet showing the laws of South Dakota which are unjust to women. There are twenty-five such laws, some of them very bad, although the legislation of South Dakota is better than that of most States. No better missionary work can be done than to acquaint both men and women with the laws that actually exist. The pamphlets may be ordered from Mrs. Elizabeth M. Wardall, Huron, at one cent each if ordered in quantities of not less than fifty. Mrs. PICKLER, S. D., said: The seed that was sown two years ago is bearing fruit, and voters everywhere who did not believe in it two years ago are converted, and will try to redeem themselves by voting for it should it come up again. I think we have in thirteen counties elected lady superintendents. Of course, we are opposed to the divorce law as it now stands, and we have a moment on foot to change that. We also resolved that we would put in a plea for some kind of suffrage at this legislature. We said we would not have it written in the history of our State that any legislature had ever convened without our knocking at the door of suffrage. We are going to ask that the Governor shall have authority to place women on the boards of the educational and charitable institutions. When I left, we had not decided yet just what we would ask for, but the ladies are at work and we are going to ask for something on that line. I have been very much pleased with some of the hints I have heard here.* TENNESSEE. [Prepared by Life Meriwether, Secretary. Read by Harriet May Mills.] Two suffrage organizations exist in the State. One in East Tennessee, in Marysville, organized last May. Its president is Mrs. McTeer, whose husband, Col. Wm. McTeer, fought for the Union. The secretary is Mrs. E. M. Henry, whose husband, Captaincies. Henry, lost an arm in defense of the Confederacy. These two men are now members of this suffrage union and fighting side by side for justice for women. The other organization exists in Memphis and held its annual meeting two weeks ago, re-electing Mrs. Lyde Meriwether president. Mrs. M. C. Courts is secretary. Meetings are held semi-monthly, one for business in the afternoon, the other furnishing an attractive evening program. Since the suffrage symposium given at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Women last November the subject has been more frequently and seriously discussed than ever before. The Tennessee W. C. T. U. is practically a unit on equal suffrage. At the recent election for superintendent of public schools in Shelby County there were four candidates, three women and one man. [**Mrs. Cranmer, the ex-State president, was, at the time of this convention, at Pierre, the State capital, trying to secure the passage of a bill granting municipal suffrage to women. -- ED.*] REPORTS FROM AUXILIARY STATES. 149 Miss Lida Thomas was the successful candidate, the other two ladies dividing the balance of the votes between them. A State convention will probably be called before the close of another year. UTAH. [Reported by Mrs. Upton.] Utah is the second organization in the Union in size, and has done and is doing good work. The manner in which she sends her lists off members to the National society is to be recommended. In the line of press work she is abreast or ahead of her eastern sisters. At present her women are devoting themselves to the work of the World's Fair. This is the first time in many years she has not had a delegate present, but she paid her dues before the time required by the constitution. Utah believes in a movable convention. Mrs. Kimball, the State president, in a private letter, says: "it seems to me good policy to scatter the good seed broadcast. I know there are strong arguments on the other side. Our interest is the greater good to the greatest number." VERMONT. [Prepared by Laura Moore, Secretary. Read by Mrs. A. D. Chandler, President.] The Vermont Woman Suffrage Association has 173 members, representing seventy-eight towns. It has no local association, but works through local committees, of which there are forty-one in different parts of the State. In addition to the usual educational work during the past year the association circulated petitions for municipal suffrage, and the bill passed the house 149 to 83, the largest vote ever obtained for a woman suffrage measure in Vermont, but failed in the senate, 18 to 10. Special gratitude is due to the efforts of Wendell Phillips Stafford, Esq., in the House. The legislature this year has placed women in a better position in regard to school suffrage by substituting the town system for the district system, and assigning the voting on school matters to town meeting. Women are this made voters in town meeting. The association has again been indebted to the New England Woman Suffrage Association for financial aid, which enabled it to close the year with a balance in hand. It has become auxiliary to the National-American, has appointed a press superintendent to secure subscriptions for the suffrage papers, and has petitioned Congress for Federal suffrage. It has been indebted to Miss Blackwell for several lectures. During the coming year Mr. Blackwell's enrollment will be prosecuted. The chairman of the finance committee, Mrs. L. E. Alfred, of Newport, proposes to establish an "Exchange" for useful and fancy articles, the profits to go to the association. VIRGINIA. [Prepared by Orra Langhorne. Read by Henderson Dangerfield.] The Virginia Woman Suffrage Society was organized in Fairfax County in April, 1892, by Miss Etta Grymes Farrar and four other ladies, who, meeting like the disciples of old, in an "upper chamber," are by the nucleus of what is destined to be an important and widespread organization. Miss Farrar was elected president. At a called meeting of the society in the committee room of Metzerott Hall, during the meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, eleven new members 150 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. presented themselves and paid their fees, pledging themselves to organize local societies in their respective districts, to circulate suffrage literature, and to use their best efforts in the cause of equal rights for women. Miss Brill, of Richmond, was elected corresponding secretary, and the president, Miss Farrar, requested to act as treasurer pro tem. Mrs. Orra Langhorne, of Culpeper, with four others, were elected delegates to the Convention, and took their places as representatives of the Old Dominion- the mother of States and statesmen. Why shall she not be recorded in the future as the mother also of stateswomen? WASHINGTON. [Prepared by Bessie Isaacs Savage, Secretary.] The Washington Equal Suffrage Association is sorry to report no work for the past year. At the annual meeting at Olympia, December 2, 1892, much important work was planned for the coming winter, as this is the year for the biennial session of the State legislature. Among other things we will work to secure the passage of a bill for the appointment of police matrons in large cities. Also a bill to raise the age of consent. In the death of Hon. Edward Eldridge, our former president, not only our suffrage association, but women everywhere, have lost a faithful, earnest friend; a needed reformer and energetic promoter. Mrs. M. C. Allen adds that the present age of consent is twelve, while the bill provides for sixteen. This bill and the one providing for police matrons have passed the Senate. FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 1892. ---- THE TREASURER, JANE H. SPOFFORD, IN ACCOUNT WITH THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. Total of Each State ARKANSAS: Auxiliary fee.......................................... $5 00 CALIFORNIA: Auxiliary fee, 2; Albertson, F. E., 1; Avery, Alida C., 1; Balch, S. G., 1; Boyd, James, 1; Darling, Mary A., 1; Faulkner, Abbey L., 4; Faulkner, A. R., 4; Goodrich, Sarah Knox, 6; Montgomery, Ellen Sargent, 1; Sargent, Ellen Clark 2; Sargent, Elizabeth C., 1; Sargent, George c., 1; Spencer, E. V., 1........................................................ 27 00 COLORADO: Auxiliary fee....................................... 3 00 CONNECTICUT: Auxiliary fee, 10.20; Champion, E., 1; Cheney, Susan J., 5; Hooker, John and Isabella B., 5; Lovett, S. P., 1; Mann, Charlotte A. Joy, 6; Smith. Sara Winthrop, 1; Young, Prof. C. Howard, 1.................................................... 30 20 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Auxiliary fee, 10.80; Ball, Virginia, 1; Barnard, M. C., 1; Bartlett, Clementine, 2; Barton, Clara, 1; Bellows, Harriet A., 1; Bennett, H. P., 1; Blount, Lucia, E., 1; Bradley, Jeannette M., 1; Bryant, Elizabeth M., 1; Buckley, Margaret L., 1; Burr, Henry, 1; Campbell, C. E., 1; Chalker, A. M., 1; Chamberlain, A., 1; Colby, Zintka Lounnie, 1; Custis, Jane L., 2; Davis, John, 1; Dean, Mary M., 1; Doolittle, Lucy, A., 5; Douglas, Frederic and Mrs., 4; Edson, Dr. Susan, 5; Edwards, F. N., 1; Engle, Mrs. 1; Flagler, Mary, 1; La Fetra, George and Mrs., 7; Gillette, Emma M., 1; Gingall, E., 1; Goodwin, Alice M., 1 Gove, Sarah Ann, 1; Gridley, A. E., 1; Gross, A. E., 1; Hall, C. A. S., 1; Hartwell, Frances E., 1; Hayes, C. Willard, 1; Heacock, Eliza and Jane, 4; Hendrickson, Hannah H., 1; Hibbard, Julia, 1; Hillyer, Amy M., 1.50; Hitz, Jane E., 1; Holton, Jerusha M., 1; Hopperton, Mary, 1; Houston, J. G., 1; Hunt, Mary L., 1; Hunt, Sarah V., 1; Hutchings, A. D., 1 ; Joyner, Elsie, 1; Kennedy, E. C., 1; Kirkland, Caroline Mary, 1; Lamb, D. S., 1; Marble, E. M. S., 1; Morse, Alice, H., 1; Munro, Jane L., 1; Newell, M. D., 1; Parnell, Rosina M., 1; Pearce, E. C., 1; Pearce, J. L., 1; Phelps, Mary, E., 1; Pomeroy, R. C., 1; Purvis, Alice H., 1., Purvis, A. M., 1; Ross, Charles H., 1; Sherman, Caroline A., 1; Spofford, C. W., 1; Spofford, Jane H., 1; Sprague, Rosa D., 1; Thompson, A. H., 1; Tilton, Lydia H., 1; Tingley, E. M., 1; Vincent Martha J., 1; Walker, Kate, 1; Ward, Eliza Titus, 1; Wilbur, Julia A., 1; Williams, Mary H., 5; Winslow, Dr. Caroline B., 1............... 114 30 152 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. GEORGIA: Auxiliary fee......................................................................... $2 80 ILLINOIS: Auxiliary fee, 60; Anthony, Elizabeth W., 3; Avery, Rosa Miller, 1; Biggs, C. F., 1; Boyles, Hannah D., 2; Dickinson, Melissa, 6; Gregory, Henry, 2; Hedenberg, Cecelia, 1; Hedenberg, Isabella, 1; Hedenberg, John, 1; Holmes, Mary E., 1; Lippincott, E. T., 1; Martin, Arabella, 1; Miller, Dr. Catherine, 2; Parker, Frank Stuart, 1; Swain, Adeline M., 1; Sawyer, Elizabeth T., 1; Willard, Frances, 1.............................. 87 00 INDIANA: Auxiliary fee, 5; Clarke, Alice J., 1; Mantle, E. A., 1; Nickolson, L. A., 1; Sewall, May Wright, 1; Sewall, Theodore L., 1..................................................................................... 10 00 IOWA: Auxiliary fee, 37.50; Adams, Mary N. 2; Baker, Priscilla, 1; Callanan, Martha C., 1; Coggeshall, Mary J., 1; Cowgill, Mary V., 2; Fawcett, Susan A. M., 1; Flint, C. Holt, 1; Ingham, Carolina A., 2; Maulsby, Poll, 1; Wright, E. J., 1................................................................................................... 50 50 KANSAS: Auxiliary fee, 21; Anthony, D R., 1; Hall, Dr. Sarah C., 1; Morrow, Sarah C., 50; Westover, Lorenzo, 2.................. 75 00 Kentucky: Auxiliary fee, 7.70; Avery, Susan Look, 2; Cabina, A. B., 2; Clay, Mary B., 2; Clay, Laura, 11: Farmer, Eugenie B., 1; Parrish, C.H., 1..................................................... 26 70 LOUISIANA: Auxiliary fee, 9; Saxon, Elizabeth Lyle, 1.............. 10 10 MAINE: Auxiliary fee, 25.75; Blaisdell, Mary M., 1; Carlisle, Margaret M., 1; Greely, Ann F., 2; O'Brien, Sarah J. L.., 2; Snow, Lavinia M., 1; Snow, Lucy M., 1....................................... 32 75 MARYLAND: Auxiliary fee, 2.90; Miller, Caroline Hallowell, 2; Wright, Jessie Waite, 1...................................................................... 5 90 MASSACHUSETTS: Auxiliary fee, 31.70; National W. S. A. of Massachusetts Auxiliary fee, 6.10; Barnard, F. L. S., 2; Bascom, Emma C., 1; Bessian, George W., 2; Blackwell, Alice Stone, 1; Blackwell, Henry B., 1; Blodgett, Dr. C., 1; Brown Catharine C., 5; Coolidge, E. D., 1; Davis, Maria Mott, 5; Dietrick, Ellen B., 1; Eddy, S. J., 6; Hall, Arden, 1; Hatch, Lavina, 1; Henshaw, Sarah A., 1; Jackson, Dr. James C., 1; Johnson, S. F., 1; Jones, Hannah, 3; Joy, Gertrude, 1; Joy, Henry, 1; Lee, H. Blake, 1; Mason, Emeline L., 5; Stone, Lucy, 1; Sunderland, Mehitabel, 1; Turner, May W., 1; Turner, M. L., 1; Turner, M. W., 1; Smith, J. W., 1; Smith, Sylvanus, 1; Webster, Elizabeth H., 1; Whipple, Charles K., 1; Whiting, Anna M., 1; Whiting John L., 22; Whiting, Mary B., 1; Whiting, Sadie A, 1........................................................................... 113 80 MICHIGAN: Auxiliary fee, 10; Burroughs, Mary A., 1; Dunbar, Virginia, 1; Fowler, Fannie Holden, 1; Janes, Rev. Martha, 1; Jenkins, Helen Philleo, 1; Ketcham, Emily B. 1; Root, Martha E., 1; Root, Melvin A., 1; Stebbins, Catharine A. F., 1; Van Buskirk, Mary L., 1; Wilbur, Dora Bella, 1.................. 21 00 MINNESOTA: Auxiliary fee, 6; Stearns, Sarah Burger 6............... 12 00 MISSOURI: Auxiliary fee, 20c; Ingalls, E. B., 1; Minor Francis, 1; Minor, Virginia L., 1.................................................................... 3 20 MONTANA: Sherman, M. F., 1.............................................................. 1 00 FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 1892 153 NEBRASKA: Auxiliary fee, 6.50; Colson, Frank, 1; Colson, S. B., 1; Fleisch, Mary G. and Mr., 3; Ham, Ellen D., 1; Hayward, Mary Smith, 1; Joslyn, S. S., 2; Lloyd, Rachel, 1; Nye, Caroline M., 1; Russell, Lucinda C., 2; Williams, A. D., 1.................................................................................................................. 20 50 NEW HAMPSHIRE: Filley, Mary A. P., 1; Wendell, C. N., 1; White Armenia L., 20.................................................................................. 22 00 NEW JERSEY: Auxiliary fee, 12; Browning, Catharine H., 5; Call, F. M., 5; Forbes, Arathusa L., 1; Hussey, Cornelia C., 21; Murphy, J. M., 1; Pugh, S. V. J ,2; Simpson, James E., 1; Spear, C. G. B., 1....................................................................................... 49 00 NEW YORK: Auxiliary fee, 100; State society for rent of parlors, 12; N. Y. City League, rent of parlors, 9; Alley, Amanda, 5; Anthony, Mary S., 10; Anthony, Susan B., 1; Banker, Henrietta M., 20; Bigelow, Alfreda, 1; Blackall, Sarah C., 1; Cary, C. H., 2; Clymer, Ella Deitz, 2; Curtis, Lucy Winslow, 20; Davis, Virginia M., 1; Fenner, M. D., 1; Ferguson, Mary I., 1 ; Greenleaf , Jean B., 10 ; Gunn, Huldah T., 1; Hall, Elizabeth P., 1; Hallowell, Mary H., 25; Holmes, Ruth A., 1; Howland, Isabel, 1; Lord, Martha Mott, 5; Lozier, Dr. Jennie M., 1; Kellogg, Jane B., 1 ; Lapham, Semantha A , 15; Miller, Helen M., 1.50; Noyes, Fanny C., 1; Rickoff, Rebecca D., 5; Sargent, James and Angeline, 25; Schoonmaker, Elizabeth, 2; Skidmore, Marion, 11 ; Skinner, Josephine, E., 1 ; Seymour, Mary F., 1 ; Smith, Lucy B., 10; Thayer, Dr. Eliza A., 1 ; Washburne, Jane, S., 1 ; Wattles, Susan E., 1 ; Wilcox, Albert O., 1 ; Willis, Sarah L., 100............................................................ 408 50 NEVADA: Clapp, Hannah H........................................................................ 2 00 NORTH DAKOTA: Cunningham, D. M.................................................... 1 00 OHIO: Auxiliary fee, 70; Casement, Frances M., 1; Casement, J. S., 1 ; Fray, Ellen Sully, 1; McCullough, Caroline E., 1 ; McNell, Eleanor, 5; McNell, C. H., 5; Monroe, Henrietta L., 1; Mott, Anna C., 5; Segur, Rosa L., 1; Silver, Esther T., 1.25; Schumacher, Abbie Lule, 1; Shook, S. R., 1; Southworth, Louise, 50; Taylor, J. D., 1; (name lost), Cleveland, 6; Toledo City W. S. A., 3.................................................................................. 154 25 OREGON: Duniway, Abigail Scott............................................................ 1 00 PENNSYLVANIA: Auxiliary fee, 26; Ambler, Hannah C., 1; Appleton, S. G., 1; Avery, Julia Foster, 1; Avery, Rachel Foster, 50; Avery, Rose Foster, 1; Bartol, Emma J., 100; Blankenburg, Lucretia L., 5; Douler, M. V., 3; Dreer, F. J., 1; Garner, J. R., 1; Grew, Mary, 2; Harrop, E. A., 1; Harrup, R. C., 1; Jones, Gulielma P., 1; Jarrett, Ada Morley, 1; Knox, M. P. M., 3; Lawler, Fanny H., 1; Longshore, Dr. Hannah E., 5; McCullough, Louisa, 5; Morley, Agnes, 1; Myers, Julia A., 2; Peirce, Charlotte, L., 1; Pennock, Deborah A., 1; Purvis, Robert, 1; Purvis, T. T., 2; Ruse, Rachel, 1; Scofield, Laura, M., 5; Stewart, D. P., 2; Stratton, M. Virginia, 1....................... 227 00 RHODE ISLAND: Auxiliary fee, 11.20; Arnold, Mary O., 5; Calder, Ellen O'Connor, 2; Chace, Elizabeth B., 1; Knowles, Catherine C., 1; Wall, Sarah E., 1................................................................ 21 20 SOUTH CAROLINA: Auxiliary fee............................................................... 5 10 154 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION SOUTH DAKOTA: Auxilliary fee, 6; Pickler, Alice and J. A., 2.... 8 00 TENNESSEE: Auxiliary fee, 5; Memphis club, 5; Conats, Mattie C., 1; Betts, Mattie M., 1... 12 00 TEXAS: Fry, A. E., 2... 2 00 UTAH: Auxiliary fee, 70; Cain, John T., 5; Cain, Margaret, 5; Kimball, Sarah M., 2; Richards, Emily S., 1; Thomas, Carne S., 2; Wells, Emmeline B., 2..... 87 00 VERMONT: Edes, P. H., 1; Moore, Laurie, 1; Smith, Clinton, 1.... 3 00 VIRGINIA: Berry, Caroline N., 2; Brown, Elisan, 1; Green, Louisa M., 1; Shumate, Lizzie, 2; Shumate, Mattie, 1.50.... 7 50 WASHINGTON: Auxiliary fee.... 5 00 WEST VIRGINIA: Neil, Marion K., 1.... 1 00 WISCONSIN: Bentley, Mary W., 1; Burbank, E. S., 20; Dagon, Amelia, 1; James, Laura B., 1; Lindsay, E. M., 1; Palmer, R. S., 1; Richards, Sarah H., 1..... 26 00 MELBOURNE: Mrs. C. P. Wallace......1 00 Without name or post-mark.... 2 00 May Wright Sewall, life membership...... 50 00 Rachel Foster Avery, for Corresponding Secretary's clerk.. 500 00 Twenty-fourth annual Washington Convention.. 281 85 Brought forward from 1891... 8 36 Total receipts 1892.... 2,544 41 DISBURSEMENTS Remainder of the $1,000 voted to Susan B. Anthony two years ago... $300 00 Balance on rent of office, 1891.... 175 00 Globe Printing Office, Philadelphia, by Corresponding Secretary, for stationery and printing... 70 80 R. C. Burton for State banners.... 12 15 Postage for the year.... 66 20 Advertising, Post and Star.. 2 25 Messengers, cabs, decorations, etc.... 23 35 Rent Church of Our Father, $220; Janitor, $5... 225 00 R. H. Darby, printing programs, tickets, etc. ...... 43 60 Traveling expenses and board of Business Committee and the evening Speaker.... 603 77 Rent of office for 1892-1328 I street.... 300 00 Writing desk and table. ....... 12 50 Printing of Judiciary Committee and of Senate hearing speeches 125 00 For Congressional Committee-Postage, $9; stationery, $4.40; typewriter, $24; Messenger, 40c.... 37 98 Brass plate sign for office 9 00 Clerk of Corresponding Secretary.... 500 00 $2,506 60 Total receipts 1892... $2,544 41 Total disbursements 1892....2,506 60 Amount carried to 1893..... $37 81 FINANCIAL REPORT FOR 1892. 155 RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, TREASURER OF THE KANSAS CONSTITUTIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE, IN ACCOUNT WITH TREASURER OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, RENDERED DECEMBER 31, 1892 Receipts. Collections in Kansas... $668 90 Subscription toward Southern Meetings. - Towson, Md... 10 00 Hagerstown, Md.. 10 00 Parksley, Va.... 10 00 R. F. Avery, contribution....... 1,000 00 $1,698 90 Expenditures. Salary and expenses of a speaker sent to fill Southern engagements.... $102 82 Printing for Southern engagements...... 3 25 Transferred to Committee on Southern Work.... 50 00 Expenses of Kansas campaign, salaries, printing, postage, advertising, and traveling expenses for thirty-one conventions.... 1,403 95 $1,560 02 Cash on hand for committee... 138 88 Total to be accounted for..... $1,698 90 CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE IN ACCOUNT WITH NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. Contributions. March 10, Alice Peters, Ohio.... $5 00 March 20, Jean B. Greenleaf, New York.... 1 00 April 6, Martha P. Davis, Kansas..... 1 00 May 25, Olivia B. Hall, Michigan...... 10 00 June 1, H. T. Upton, Ohio..... 2 00 Total..... $19 00 Through H. T. Upton, chairman, for stamps, stationery and office expenses at headquarters.... $19 00 SOUTHERN COMMITTEE IN ACCOUNT WITH TREASURER NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION, RENDERED DEC. 31, 1892. Receipts. Eveleen L. Mason, Massachusetts.... $10 00 Susan L. Avery, Kentucky...... 25 00 Rachel Foster Avery, Pennsylvania... 50 00 Total...... $85 00 Expenditures. Through the treasurer by order of committee.... $40 00 Cash on hand for committee..... 45 00 Total...... $85 00 CONSTITUTION OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. ARTICLE I. The name of this Association shall be THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. ARTICLE II. The object of this Association shall be to secure protection in their right to vote, to the women citizens of the United States, by appropriate National and State legislation. ARTICLE III. SECTION 1. All citizens of the United States subscribing to this Constitution, and paying not less than one dollar annually into the treasury of this Association, shall become members thereof, and shall be entitled to attend all its meetings, to participate in all discussions that may arise, and to receive reports and other documents published by it. SEC. 2. The payment of fifty dollars ($50) into the treasury shall constitute any citizen of the United States a Life Member of the Association, with all the privileges belonging to the regular annual members. ARTICLE IV. SECTION 1 The officers of this Association shall be a President, a Vice-President-at-Large, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer and two Auditors. The officers named in this section shall be nominated by an informal ballot at a business session of the Annual Convention of the Association. The three persons receiving the highest number of votes for any office shall be considered the nominees of the Convention for that office, and the will of the Association shall we taken by a formal ballot. SEC. 2. Wherever State Associations auxiliary to this Association exist, the Presidents of such Associations shall be considered Vice-Presidents of this Association, representing therein their respective States. SEC. 3. Each State Auxiliary Association shall elect from its membership one person to serve on the Executive Committee of this Association. SEC. 4. The officers enumerated in the preceding sections of this Article, together with the Chairmen of the standing committees, shall constitute the Executive Committee of this Association; of these officers, fifteen shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 156 CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 157 SEC. 5. This Association shall elect Vice-Presidents to represent States where there is no auxiliary Society; but Vice-Presidents representing non-auxiliary States shall be only honorary officers, and shall not be entitled to vote. SEC. 6. The Executive Committee may elect annually ten or more honorary Vice-Presidents. ARTICLE V. This Constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote at any annual meeting, after one day's notice in the Convention, notice of the proposed amendment having been given to the Business Committee, and by them published in the suffrage papers not less than three months in advance. BY-LAWS. BY-LAW I. For the accomplishment of the object specified in Article II of its Constitution, this Association shall seek to concentrate the efforts of all the advocates of woman suffrage in the United States by the following methods: (1.) It shall hold annually one meeting of delegates (according to the basis of representation stated in By-Law II), for the transaction of business, the election of officers and the advocacy of its principles; and it may hold one or more other conventions annually for the advocacy of its principles. In order to influence national legislation the annual meeting of delegates shall be held in Washington, D. C., during the first session of each Congress. (2.) It shall form State Associations auxiliary to itself in every State where none such now exist; and, recognizing the authority of its auxiliaries in their respective States, it shall promote their local work by every means in its power. (3.) It shall publish tracts, speeches and other documents, and shall furnish the same at actual cost. (4.) It shall prepare and circulate petitions to Congress and to State legislatures on behalf of the political and civil equality of women, and take such other measures for the promotion of women suffrage as the Executive Committee shall determine upon, subject always to the will of the Association. BY-LAW II. - BASIS OF REPRESENTATION. SECTION 1. Any State Woman Suffrage Association may become auxiliary to this Association, by paying annually into the treasury of the National American Association, ten cents per member of the State Society and its paid-up local auxiliaries. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the treasurer of each auxiliary Association to send to the Treasurer of the National American Association, before January 1st in each year, a list certified to by its Recording Secretary, of the members of said organization for the current year. SEC. 3. Every such auxiliary Association shall be entitled to send three delegates to the annual convention of this Association, and one delegate in addition for every one hundred members of the State Society and of its paid local auxiliaries. 158 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION SEC 4. All officers of this Association shall be ex officio delegates-at-large, and every such officer shall be entitled to vote in all the business meetings of the Association. BY-LAW III. - CREDENTIALS. All delegates (except the delegates-at-large specified in Section 4 of By-Law II) must present credentials properly signed by the President and the Recording Secretary of the organization represented. Membership cards, properly signed by the Treasurer of the National American Association, shall serve as credentials for the members of that body who are not delegates from other bodies. BY-LAW IV. The Executive Committee of this Association shall hold one session preceding the opening of each annual convention, and another session after the conclusion of such convention; and the committees having in charge the arrangements for the annual convention shall always take cognizance of such meetings of the Executive committee and make provision for them. BY-LAW V. The decisions reached by the Executive Committee shall be presented in the form of recommendations at the business sessions of the convention. BY-LAW VI. In the election of officers, the delegates present from each State shall cast the full vote to which the organization represented by them is entitled. The vote shall be taken in the same way upon any other question when- ever the delegates present from five States concur in asking for it. In other cases each delegate shall have one vote. BY-LAW VII. The Committee on Resolutions shall consist of one person from each State, elected by the delegation from the organization represented. BY-LAW VII. After each annual convention the Business Committee shall elect the following Standing Committees : A Committee on Petitions ; a Committee on Programme, to consist of five persons, one from each section of the country, and of which the President shall be chairman, to arrange the programme from the next annual meeting ; a Congressional Committee, to have in charge the direct Congressional work during the year which shall intervene between the time of its appointment and the next annual convention ; and Committees on Press Work, Local Arrangements, Railroad Rates, Enrollment, Federal Suffrage, Presidential Suffrage, Parliamentary Law and Practice, Hotel and Convention Headquarters and National Headquarters. BY-LAW IX. The report of the Treasurer up to the first of January preceding the annual convention shall be read at the first business session of that body. CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 159 BY-LAW X. SECTION 1. The General Officers named in Art. IV., Sec. 1, of the Constitution, viz., the President, Vice-President-at-Large, Recording and Corresponding Secretaries, Treasurer, and two Auditors, with the two Honorary Presidents, shall constitute a Business Committee to provide for and control the general interests of the work in the interim of the annual meetings, and to perform all other business not otherwise assigned. Of these, four shall constitute a quorum when assembled after due notice, or a majority may act by correspondence in response to a circular letter addressed to every member of the Business Committee not less than ten days beforehand, by the President. SEC. 2. The President may call special meetings of the Business Committee, when deemed necessary, or in response to the written request of any three members of the Business Committee, and shall perform all other duties usual to such office. SEC. 3. The Vice-President-at-Large shall perform all duties of the President in case of the President's absence or disability. SEC. 4. The Recording Secretary shall attend all business meetings of the Association and its Executive sessions, and the meetings of the Executive Committee and of the Business Committee, and shall keep a correct record of their proceedings, and shall give due notice of meetings of the Executive Committee, and shall apprise members of committees of their appointment, and at the first Executive Session of each annual convention shall read in their order, for action by said meeting, the minutes of all meetings of Business and Executive Committees since the last annual meeting, and shall also read the report of the Business Committee; and shall also perform all other duties usually pertaining to such office. SEC. 5. The Corresponding Secretary shall conduct all correspondence of the organization, and perform all duties usual to such office; and shall also send to the secretary of each auxiliary association notice to prepare a report of work done by said auxiliary, blanks for credentials of delegates to the annual meeting to which said auxiliary is entitled, and a notice of the necessity that said auxiliary shall send dues and list of names and addresses of members to the Treasurer of this Association. SEC. 6. The Treasurer shall keep accurate accounts of all receipts and disbursements of money, and shall present a detailed report thereof to each annual meeting, to be afterward published, and shall pay no bill except on an order signed by the acting president and Recording Secretary, and at the annual meeting shall give to the chairman of the Committee on Credentials the whole number of delegates to which each auxiliary is entitled, according to the number of members and amount of dues paid; and shall perform all other duties usually pertaining to this office. SEC. 7. The Auditors shall examine and verify the books of the Treasurer, and shall give a report thereof at each annual meeting. SEC. 8. The General Officers of this Association shall be elected on the last day buy one of the annual meeting. SEC. 9. The term of the General Officers shall expire at the end of the last session of the (annual) convention proper, and the term of the newly-elected officers shall commence with the session of the Executive Committee held after the conclusion of the convention, provided for by By-Law IV. SEC. 10. The Business Committee shall fill any vacancy that may occur in itself during the interim of annual meetings. SEC. 11. In case of the absence from the annual convention of this Association of a State President of a State member of the Executive Committee the delegation from that State may elect a proxy to represent the absentee on the Executive Board during the convention. OFFICERS NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 1893 Honorary Presidents Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 26 West 61st street, New York City Lucy Stone, Dorchester, Mass. President Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y. Vice-President-at-Large Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Corresponding Secretary. Rachel Foster Avery, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa. Recording Secretary Alice Stone Blackwell, 3 Park street, Boston, Mass. Treasurer Harriet Taylor Upton, Warren, Ohio Auditors May Wright Sewall, Indianapolis, Ind. Ellen Batelle Dietrick, Boston, Mass. Honorary Vice-Presidents California - Ellen Clark Sargent, Sarah Knox Goodrich, Dr. Alida C. Avery, Mary F. Channing Colorado - Gov. John L. Routt Connecticut - Emily P. Collins, Isaac C. Lewis, John Hooker, Joseph Sheldon, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Elizabeth Thompson District of Columbia - Caroline H. Dall. Ruth C. Dennison, Julia A. Wilbur, Dr. Susan Edson, Hon. Frederick Douglass, Mary A. O'Conner, Albert G. Riddle, Rosanna Thompson Georgia - Sophia L. Ober Allen, Sarah Freeman Clarke Illinois - Hannah Tracy Putler Indiana - Zeralda G. Wallace, Wm. Dudley Foulke Iowa - Amelia Bloomer, Mary V. Cowgill, Margaret W. Campbell 160 OFFICERS FOR 1893. 161 Kentucky - Susan Look Avery Kansas - Mother Bickerdike, Rev. Lydia Pexton, Mrs. Slocum, Susan E. Wattles, Amanda Way Maine - Margaret T. W. Merrill, Ann F. Greeley, Rev. Dr. Blanchard, Lucy A. Snow Maryland - Edith B. Bentley, Caroline Hallowell Miller Massachusetts - Ednah D. Cheney, Frances H. Drake, Anna Gardner, Paulina Gerry, Col. T. W. Higginson, Wm. I. Bowditch, Theodore D. Weld, Rev. Samuel May, Adeline Howland. Michigan - Harriet Burton, Catharine A. F. Stebbins, Lucinda H. Stone, Olivia B. Hall, Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, Delos Blodgett Minnesota - Margaret Van Cleeve, Sarah Burger Stearns, Dr. Martha A. Ripley Missouri - Virginia L. Minor, Rebecca N. Hazard, Mrs. Beverly Allen, Mrs. Ferdinand Gerieshe, James E. Yeatman Nebraska - Mary Rogers Kimball New Hampshire - Hon. Henry W. Blair, Mary Powers Tilley, Nancy Gilmore, Parker Pillsbury New Jersey - Elizabeth McClintock Phillips, Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Arathusa L. Forbes, Phebe C. Wright, Cornelia Hussey. North Carolina - Elizabeth Oakes Smith New York - Sarah Anthony Burtis, Sarah H. Willis, J. Elizabeth Jones, Albert O. Wilcox, Matilda F. Wendt, Elizabeth P. Hall, Mrs. Chas B. Sedgwick, Charles D. B. Mills, Mary R. Pell, Lewia C. Smith Ohio - Phebe C. McKell, Emily Robinson, Hon. Ezra B. Taylor, Ferdinand Schumacher, Esther Wattles Oregon - Abigail Scott Duniway Pennsylvania - Mary Grew, M. Adeline Thompson, Dr. Hannah Longshore, Robert Purvis Virginia - Elizabeth Van Lew, Dr. Thamsin Janney Vermont - Mrs. H. S. W. Moore Washington - Hon. Roger S. Greene, Barbara J. Thompson Wisconsin - Alameda B. Gray, Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott Wyoming - Esther Morris, Hon. Mr. Bright, Hon. John W. Hoyt, Amelia B. Post LIFE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION Mary A. McPherson ... Washington, D. C. Mary C. Nason ...Washington, D. C. C. W. Spofford ... Washington, D. C. Jane H. Spofford ... Washington, D. C. Sophronia C. Snow ... Washington, D. C. Eliza T. Ward ... Washington, D. C. Lucia E. Blount ... Washington, D. C. Elizabeth Cady Stanton ... New York, N. Y. Susan B. Anthony ... Rochester, N. Y. Mary S. Anthony ... Rochester, N. Y. II W S 162 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. Sarah L. Willis....................................Rochester, N. Y. Matilda Joslyn Gage........................Fayetteville, N. Y. M. Adeline Thomson........................Philadelphia, Pa. Emma J. Bartol....................................Philadelphia, Pa. Ellen K. Brazier.....................................Philadelphia, Pa. Emma J. Brazier...................................Philadelphia, Pa. Alvin T. James.......................................Philadelphia, Pa. Helen Mosher James..........................Philadelphia, Pa. Kate W. Dewald.....................................Philadelphia, Pa. Rev. Anna Howard Shaw........................Philadelphia, Pa. Oliva B. Hall........................Ann Arbor, Mich. Louise Southworth........................Cleveland, Ohio. May Wright Sewall........................Indianapolis, Ind. Caroline E. Merrick........................New Orleans, La. Virginia L. Minor........................St. Louis, Mo. Phoebe M. Couzins........................St.Louis, Mo. Benjamin F. Avery........................Louisville, y. Rev. Olympia Brown........................Racine, Wis. Clara B. Colby........................Beatrice, Neb. Sarah E. Morrow........................Lanna, Kans. Sarah S. Wilbour........................Little Compton, R. I. VICE-PRESIDENTS-(PRESIDENTS OF AUXILIARY STATES.) Alabama........................E. S. Hildreth, New Decatur. Arkansas........................Clara A. McDiarmid, Little Rock. California........................Laura De Force Gordon, Lodi. Colorado........................Olive Hogle, Denver. Connecticut........................Isabella Beecher Hooker, Hartford. District of Columbia........................Helen R. Tindall, California avenue. Florida........................Ella C. Chamberlain, Tampa. Georgia........................Claudia B. Howard, Columbus. Illinois........................Mary E. Holmes, Willard's Hotel, Chicago. Indiana........................Helen M. Gougar, Lafayette. Iowa........................Estelle T. Smith, Ft. Dodge. Kansas........................Laura M. Johns, Salina. Kentucky........................Laura Clay, Lexington. Louisiana........................Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, New Orleans. Maine........................Hannah J. Bailey, Winthrop Centre. Maryland........................Mary Bentley Thomas, Ednor. Massachusetts........................Lucy Stone, Dorchester. Massachusetts (National, Sarah A. P. Dickinson, Acting President, Jamaica Plains. Michigan........................Emily B. Ketchum, Grand Rapids. Minnesota........................Julia B. Nelson, Red Wing. Missouri........................Virginia Hedges, Warrensburg. Montana........................Marie L. Mason, Helena. Nebraska........................Clara Bewick Colby, 1325 Tenth St., N. W., Washington, D. C. New Hampshire........................Armenia S. White, Concord. New Jersey........................Florence Howe Hall, Scotch Plains. New York........................Jean Brooks Greenleaf, Rochester. Ohio........................Caroline McCullough Everhard, Massillon. Oregon........................Lydia M. Hunt, Portland. OFFICERS FOR 1893. 163 Pennsylvania........................Lucretia L. Blankenburg, Arch St., Philadelphia. Rhode Island........................Elizabeth B. Chase, Valley Falls. Tennessee........................Lide Meriwether, Memphis. South Carolina........................Virginia D. Young, Fairfax. South Dakota........................Irene G. Adams, Cresco, Iowa. Utah........................Sarah M. Kimball, Salt Lake City. Vermont........................A. D. Chandler, Barton Landing. Virginia........................Etta Grymes Farrar, Gunston. Washington........................A. H. H. Stewart, Olympia. VICE-PRESIDENTS IN STATES AND TERRITORIES UNORGANIZED. Arizona........................Nellie Garlick, Phoenix. Idaho........................Belle B. Kurtz, Nampa. Mississippi........................Mollie McGee Snell. Nevada........................Hannah R. Clapp, Reno. New Mexico........................Mamie Marble, Kingston. North Dakota........................Dr. Cora Smith, Grand Forks. Oklahoma........................M. A. Copeland, Guthrie. Texas........................Rebecca Henry Hayes, Galveston. STANDING COMMITTEES. ------ Congressional Committee. Susan B. Anthony New York. Bessie V. Pettigrew South Dakota. Ruth B. Hoar Massachusetts. Edith A. Hawley Connecticut. Louise Carey Wyoming. Alice Waugh Indiana. Bina A. Otis Kansas. Jennie Broderick Kansas. Alice M. A. Pickler South Dakota. Stella Johnson North Dakota. Lydia A. Northway Ohio. Southern Committee. Laura Clay Lexington, Ky. Clara A. McDiarmid Little Rock, Ark. Virginia Hedges Warrensburg, Mo. Lide Meriwether Memphis, Tenn. H. Augusta Howard Columbus, Ga. Elizabeth Lyle Saxon New Orleans, La. Virgini D. Young Fairfax, S. C. E. S. Hildreth New Decatur, Ala. Presidential Suffrage Committee. Henry B. Blackwell Massachusetts. Ellen M. Bolles Rhode Island. Catherine Waugh McCullough Illinois. Emma S. De Voe Illinois. Federal Suffrage Committee. Chairman, Clara Bewick Colby 1325 Tenth Street, N. W., Washington, D. C. C. J. Hildreth New Decatur, Ala. Fannie J. Chunn Cotton Plant, Ark. Mary M. Bowman Los Angeles, Cal. Isabella Beecher Hooker Hartford, Conn. Ella M. S. Marble Washington, D.C. Lavina A. Hatch 59 Hancock St., Boston, Mass. H. Augusta Howard Columbus, Ga. Emma Smith Devoe Harvey, Ill. Helen M. Gougar Lafayette, Ind. Catherine M. Pierce Des Moines, Iowa. Elizabeth F. Hopkins Salina, Kan. Josephine K. Henry Versailles, Ky. Eliza C. Ferguson New Orleans, La. Ann F. Greeley Ellsworth, Maine. Dr. N. V. Marks Baltimore Md. Evaleen L. Mason Brookline, Mass. STANDING COMMITTEES. 165 M. A. and M. E. Root Bay City, Mich. S. M. Ford Kansas City, Mo. H. C. Worthington Butte City, Mon. Helen M. Goff Kearney, Neb. Marilla Marks Brewster North Danville, N. H. Mamie E. Marble Kingston, New Mex. Isabel Howland Sherwood, N. Y. Anna Giersten, N. Ransom, N. Dak. Louisa Southworth Cleveland, Ohio. H. H. Switzer Kingfisher, Okla. Abigail Scott Duniway Portland, Ore. Matilda Hindeman Allegheny, Pa. Ellen M. Bolles Providence, R. I. Virginia D. Young Fairfax, S. C. Elizabeth M. Wardell Huron, S. Dak. Lide Meriwether Memphis, Tenn. Elizabeth Fry San Antonio, Tex. Emmeline B. Wells Salt Lake City, Utah. Laura Moore Barnet, Vermont. Orra B. Langborne Culpeper, Va. Mary J. Chamberlain Buckley, Wash. M. M. Holbert Everson, W. Va. Rev. Olympia Brown Racine, Wis. Theresa A. Jenkins Cheyenne, Wyoming. Programme. Susan B. Anthony New York. Rachel Foster Avery Pennsylvania. Laura Hurd Bailey Iowa. Josephine K. Henry Kentucky. Emma S. Gillette District of Columbia. Petition. Dr. Frances Dickinson 70 State street, Chicago, Ill. Lillie Devereux Blake Clara Bewick Colby Beatrice, Neb. Press. Ellen Batelle Dietrick Huntington avenue, Boston Mass. Enrollment. Louisa Southworth 844 Prospect street, Cleveland, Ohio. Local Arrangements. Ella M. S. Marble, Lucia E. Blount, Jane H. Spofford, E. J. Varney, Mary S. Lockwood, Henrietta C. Metzerott. Hotel Headquarters and Hall. Lucy E. Anthony Somerton, Pa. Parliamentary Law and Practice. Ella W. Brown Holton, Kan. Railroad Rates. Ruth G. D. Havens Washington, D. C. National Headquarters Eliza Titus Ward 1328 I street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 166 MINUTES OF THE SUFFRAGE CONVENTION. SPECIAL COMMITTEES. Columbian Exposition. Rachel Foster Avery, Somerton, Philadelphia, Pa; Ellen Batelle Dietrick, Lide Meriwether, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Rev. Florence Kollock, Mrs. Leland Stanford, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Stone Blackwell, Jane H. Spofford, Harriet Taylor Upton, May Wright Sewall. Representatives for the States. Colorado, H. S. Stansberry; Connecticut, Isabella Beecher Hooker; District of Columbia, Ella M. S. Marble; Dakota (South), Alice M. A. Pickler; Georgia, Miriam Howard DuBose; Illinois, Mary E. Holmes; Indiana, Helen M. Gougar; Iowa, Narcissa T. Bemis; Kansas, Laura M. Johns; Kentucky, Susan Look Avery; Maine, Elizabeth U. Yates; Massachusetts, (National), Lavina A. Hatch; Massachusetts, Julia Ward Howe; Maryland, Elizabeth Moore; Michigan, Helen P. Jenkins; Nebraska, Mary Smith Heyward; New York, Martha T. Henderson; Ohio, Caroline McCullough Everhard; Oregon, Abigail Scott Duniway; Pennsylvania, Rachel Foster Avery; Rhode Island, Ellen M. Bolles; Utah, Sarah M. Kimball; Washington, Julia E. Kennedy. Kansas Constitution Campaign. Laura M. Johns (with power to chose her own assistants).....Salina, Kan. Convention Press Work. Harriet Taylor Upton......Warren, Ohio. ADVERTISEMENTS. ADVERTISEMENTS. 1607 THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1892 Compiled and edited by Edmund Clarence Stedman and Ellen MacKay Hutchinson, Alone contains more carefully chosen, ably edited, and artistically arranged ADVENTURES, ANECDOTES, BALLADS, BIOGRAPHIES, CHARACTER SKETCHES, CORRESPONDENCE, CRITICISM, DRAMAS, ESSAYS, FICTIONS, HISTORIES, HUMOROUS ARTICLES, NARRATIVES, NOTED SAYINGS, ORATIONS POEMS, POLITICS, THEOLOGY, TRAVELS, WARS, WITCHCRAFTS, AND WONDERS, than were ever before gathered within the same space or offered in one collection. Among those best competent to testify, the following have made constant use of these volumes, and highly recommend them: Ex-President Noah Porter, Yale University, W. T. Harris, LL. D., United States Com. of Education John Greenleaf Whittier Professor John Fiske, Harvard University, A. R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress William Dean Howells, Bishop John H. Vincent, D. D., LL. D., Chancellor of Chautauqua University James Whitcomb Riley William E. Sheldon, Ex-Pres. National Teacher's Ass'n, Robert C. Winthrop, Richard Malcolm Johnston Oliver Wendell Holmes, Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll Hon. George William Curtis, Robert A. Pinkerton, Richard Watson Gilder, Amos M. Kellogg, Editor N. Y. School Journal Andrew Carnegie Gen. Fitz Hugh Lee Mrs. J. E. B. Stuart Mrs. Roscoe Conkling Hon. Charles A. Dana Bishop Phillips Brooks, Cardinal Gibbons Archbishop Corrigan Archbishop Ryan Chauncey M. Depew Hon. Henry Watterson Col. T Wentworth Higginson The London Times The Century Magazine Joel Chandler Harris Hon. Whitelaw Reid Professor David Swing Cornelius Vanderbilt Richard Henry Stoddard George Cary Eggleston Mrs. John A. Logan Charles L. Tiffany, Merchant B. O. Flower, Editor Arena, And thousands of others who are well known. The Stedman-Hutchinson Library of American Literature is indispensable to busy persons whose time is limited; to children whose tastes are to be formed; to those who use books for entertainment and instruction, and to all who wish to know anything about books or authors, or who wish to improve their own conversation and writings. It will cost you nothing to ask the next book- agent you meet to bring you this LIBRARY. He will be glad to bring it. In the mean time write to CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO., 67 Fifth Ave., N. Y. EXTRA INDUCEMENTS OFFERED CANVASSERS (Ladies or Gentlemen) To sell our Royal Polished Steel Roasters and Bakers. Big Profits. They sell on sight. Agents and dealers say they are the best and most complete Roaster made in the United States. Write at once for terms and particulars. Mention this paper. Address, The Royal Polished Steel Roaster Co., Troy, Ohio. The Woman's Tribune, Published at Washington, D. C., Is the cheapest Woman Suffrage paper in the World. Is the only Woman Suffrage paper contributed to by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Has full reports of all important features of National and State work of Woman Suffrage Associations. Has a summary of whatever is of interest relating to the advancement of women. Has many able contributors who treat of general topics, and its literary department is suited for busy people. Has a weekly record of doings in Congress, and other events of the day. Send One Dollar for one year's subscription. Send Ten Cents for five weeks' trial subscription. A large number of Valuable Books are offered as premiums. CLARA BEWICK COLBY, Editor and Publisher. ADVERTISEMENTS. Good Books For Women ..... Our Early Presidents, their Wives and Children. From Washington to Jackson. By Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton. With 150 portraits, pictures, and autograph letters. Quarto, gold cloth, $4.00. The homelife of our rulers with their families. The Sarah K. Bolton Success Series. Some Successful Women. Frances E. Willard, Alice Freeman, Rachel Bodley and Clara Barton are among the twelve whose biographies are given. "Will help all sensible women." - Boston Beacon Social Studies in England. The higher education of women and new avenues of work opened to them, special and public charities, are all carefully treated. How Success is Won. Biographies of twelve prominent men. "The book is a success. The stories are told charmingly." - Kate Sanborn. 3 vols., 12 mo., $1.00 each. The New Womanhood. By Rev. J. C. Fernald. Introduction by Marion Harland. 12mo., $1.25. "A wise, conservative, and truly progressive discussion of the much misunderstood 'woman question.' A book that every girl in America should read; and every mother; and every father; and every son. It aims high and strikes deep." Bishop Vincent. D. Lothrop Co., Publishers, Boston. Universal Truth. A monthly magazine which shows the practicality of the Christ Philosophy of Living. The best magazine of its kind in the world. International Bible Lessons; a department for children; and a most able corps of contributors. One dollar per year. Sample copy ten cents. Address, F. M. Harley Pub. Co., 87 Washington St., Chicago, Ill. (Mention this paper.) The Simplex Printer A new invention for duplicating copies of writings or drawings. From an original, on ordinary paper with any pen, 100 copies can be made. Fifty copies of typewriter manuscripts produced in 15 minutes. Send for circulars and samples. AGENTS WANTED. LAWTON & CO., 20 Vesey Street, N. Y. Subscribe for The Woman's Recorder. Claudia Q. Murphy, Editor. The official organ of the Michigan and of the Ohio Woman's Suffrage Societies. It is the largest Suffrage Paper in the world for the price. It has all the news. It is issued every week. It will cost you $1.00 per year, 2 cents per week. You Cannot Afford to do Without it. The Woman's Recorder, Toledo, O. ADVERTISEMENTS. ------ THE WOMAN'S COLUMN Edited at 3 Park Street, Boston, Mass., by Alice Stone Blackwell. Published weekly. Price, 25 cents a year. ----- "It is a gem."—Rev. Anna H. Shaw. "This admirable little paper gives in small compass the news of the movement all over the world, together with many valuable articles and arguments. It contains poems and dialogues suitable for recitation at entertainments given by Political Equality Clubs, and will be found a valuable help in keeping up the interest of the meetings."—Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace. "It is the best condensation of the argument for woman's enfranchisement, the method by which that arguement is enforced, and news of the movement, that we have anywhere. Our women cannot do better than subscribe for it, and clip items from its bright paragraphs for the local press. Also, 'line it out' to the unconvinced and gainsaying, for its temper is as excellent as its information is valuable."— Frances E. Willard. FIVE DOLLAR PREMIUM. A cash premium of $5 is offered to anyone obtaining a club of 50 new subscribers to the Woman's Column; for a club of 30 new subscribers, $3; for 20 new subscribers, $2; and for 10 new subscribers, $1. Sample Copies FREE -------- THE American Woman's Journal . . . AND . . . THE BUSINESS WOMAN'S JOURNAL. ----- TWO MAGAZINES IN ONE. ------ OWNED, EDITED, PUBLISHED AND CONTROLLED BY WOMEN. ----- The officers of this company represent some of the largest organizations of women in the United States and England. It is the only magazine of its kind published in the world. It instructs women in regard to questions of public interest. It shows the progress women are making in the different occupations open to them, and is of great interest to teachers, stenographers and all professional and business women. It informs women in regard to the laws affecting both their persons and property; and teaches them how to manage their property in a business-like way. It contains book reviews and able articles from the pens of well-known writers. One dollar a year; fifty cents for six months; single copies ten cents. Send subscriptions by express money order, which can be bought in any city in the United States for five cents. Send for sample copy. The Mary F. Seymour Publishing Co. 120 Broadway, New York City. Room 44, 7th floor. ------- EQUAL SUFFRAGE TRACTS. About forty different Woman Suffrage tracts may be ordered from the Woman's Journal office, Boston, Mass., at 15 and 30 cents per hundred of the same kind. A sample set, containing all the kinds, sent postpaid for 10 cents. These leaflets include addresses on woman suffrage by George William Curtis, U. S Senators Carey and Hoar, Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Henry Ward Beecher, Mrs. Zerelda G. Wallace, Frances E. Willard, Dr. J. W. Bashford, Rev. C. C. Harrah, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, and others. ------- THE YELLOW RIBBON SPEAKER. A book of equal rights readings and recitations, compiled by Rev. ANNA H. SHAW, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, and LUCY E. ANTHONY. Price, - - - - 50 Cents. Address either Woman's Journal, Boston, Mass., or Woman's Tribune, Washington, D. C. ----- ADVERTISEMENTS. -------- .... The .... Woman's Standard. ----- MARTHA C. CALLANAN, EDITOR. ----- The organ of the Iowa State Woman Suffrage Association. Published Monthly, Price, 50 Cents a year, at Des Moines, Iowa. ------- The Woman's Journal. A weekly paper founded 1870, devoted to Women's Interests, and especially to Woman Suffrage. ----- EDITORS: LUCY STONE, HENRY B. BLACKWELL, ALICE STONE BLACKWELL. "The best source of information upon the woman question that I know of."—Clara Barton. "The best woman's paper in the United States, or in the world."—Englishwoman's Review. "It is so much the best of the woman suffrage papers that no comparison is possible." -Rev. Anna H. Shaw. "It is an exceedingly bright paper, and, what is far better, a just one. I could not do without it."- Marietta Holley (Josiah Allen's Wife) "It is the most reliable and extensive source of information regarding what women are doing, what they can do, and what they should do. It is the oldest of the women's papers now in existence, and has built up for itself a solid and unblemished reputation."- Julia Ward Howe. TWENTY DOLLAR PREMIUM. To any Suffrage Association or individual, getting up a club of 25 new subscribers to the Woman's Journal at $1.50 each, the Woman's Journal will pay a cash premium of Twenty Dollars. Sample copies FREE. One year on trial to new subscribers, $1.50. Regular price per year, $2.50. To Libraries and Reading Rooms, $1.25. Address, WOMAN'S JOURNAL, Boston, Mass. ... THE... Woman's Chronicle, ----- KATE CUNNINGHAM, Editor. ---- Published Weekly at... .... Little Rock, Arkanses. ------ Price, - - - - $1 a year. ------- ... THE .... National Bulletin, ***** Published monthly at the office of THE WOMAN'S TRIBUNE, Washington, D. C. Subscription price 15 cents per annum; 10 cents for 25 copies of each number; 30 cents 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 ****** THE SPECIAL ISSUES IN STOCK CONTAIN: "The Degradation of Disfranchisement," by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. "The Matriarchate," by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. "Voluntary Motherhood," by Hariot Stanton Blatch. "Why Democratic Women Want the Ballot." "Federal Suffrage Report and Argument," by Clara Bewick Colby. "Woman Suffrage in Wyoming," by Clara Bewick Colby. "Shall the World's Fair be opened on Sunday," by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. "Women and Street Cleaning," by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. ADVERTISEMENTS. "The LAST AND BEST Book on Art Needlework." 1893 EDITION JUST OUT. 100 pages on Miscellaneous Needlework Matters. Embroidery. Mountmellick Work and Stitches. Crocheting. Knitting. Some things useful and ornamental. Over 75 engraved illustrations. Mailed to any address on receipt of ten cents, or free for the names of 15 ladies interested in Art Needlework. The BRAINERD & ARMSTRING SPOOL SILK CO., 115 Union St., New London, Conn. AN ABSOLUTELY PURE COCOA. PROFESSOR JAMES F. BABCOCK, the well-known chemical expert, for many years State Assayer for Massachusetts, recently purchased in open market a sample of WALTER BAKER & CO.'S BREAKFAST COCOA, and, after making a careful analysis, filed the following certificate:— BOSTON, January 20, 1892. THIS certifies that I have made a very thorough chemical and microscopic examination of the article known as WALTER BAKER & CO.'S BREAKFAST COCOA, and I have compared the results with those found from a similar examination of the pure roasted cocoa-bean. I find that WALTER BAKER & CO.'S BREAKFAST COCOA is absolutely pure. It contains no trace of any sibstance foreign to the pure roasted cocoa-bean. The color is that of pure cocoa. The flavor is natural, and not artificial; and the product is every particular such as must have been produced from the pure cocoa-bean without the addition of any chemical, alkali, acid, or artificial flavoring substance which are to be detected in cocoas prepared by the so-called "Dutch process." [Signed] JAMES F. BABCOCK. The statements in the foregoing certificate are fully sustained in the recent Report of the United States Government Chemists in the Department of Agriculture at Washington. ADVERTISEMENTS. The ELSMERE 1408 H Street Northwest, WASHINGTON, D. C. A Family Hotel accommodating transients, and capacity for 175 guests. Located near the Executive Mansion, Treasury Department, State, War and Navy Departments. The following names are selected from the hotel register, as follows: Senator John M. Palmer, Illinois. " J. H. Gallinger, N. H. " Jos. M. Cary, Wyoming. " W. F. Sanders, Montana. " B. W. Perkins, Kan. E-Sen. John J. Ingalls, Kan. " C. B. Farwell, Ill. " Geo. F. Edmunds, Vt. Hon. C. H. Burrows, Mich. " Geo. H. Brickner, Wis. " E. B. Taylor, Ohio. " J. DeWitt Warner, N. Y. " W. B. Hooker, N. Y. Hon. Marriott Brosius, Pa. " C. A. Bergen, N. J. " S. P. Snider, Minn. " A. B. Nettleton, Minn. " O. L. Spaulding, Mich. " Geo. S. Boutwell, Mass. " Owen Scott, Ill. Gen. L. A. Grant, U. S. A. " Samuel Breck, " " W. P. Carlin, " " A. V. Kautz, " Col. Geo. L. Andrews, " Chas. Dudley Warner, N. Y. Wm. Dean Howells, N. Y. ADVERTISEMENTS. Cleveland Shopping Bureau. Cleveland Shopping at Your Homes. Purchases made of every description, viz.: Chin, Glassware, Silverware, Jewelry, Fancy and Toilet Goods, Ready-made Garments, Linens, Books, Stationery, Music, Art Goods, House Furnishing Goods, Hardware, etc. Engraved or Printed Work for Weddings, Parties, etc. Special Department for Matching and Buying Dry Goods. Estimates furnished and selections made for interior or exterior House Decoration, embracing Wall Paper, Paints, Gas Fixtures, Furniture, Carpets, Curtains, Draperies, Bric-a-Brac, Pictures, etc. Samples and Prices furnished on application. CLEVELAND SHOPPING BUREAU, GENERAL AGENTS, 8 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. THERE ARE PRINTERS AND PRINTERS For Fine Work BOOK OR JOB Address the GLOBE PRINTING HOUSE PHILADELPHIA, PA. Copies of this Report may be procured upon application to the Treasurer of National American Woman Suffrage Association, at National Headquarters, 1328 I Street, N. W. Washington, D. C. In answering advertisement, please mention this Report. ADVERTISEMENTS. SARGENT'S AUTOMATIC SMOKE PREVENTER. ROCHESTER, N. Y., December 20, 1892. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: We have had in use two of Sargent's Smoke Preventers on our two boilers since early last spring, and find that their operation is all that was represented and all that we had hoped; in fact, that it is entirely satisfactory, the device furnishing such a good draft that a blower is not required. We have made frequent, careful examinations of the boilers, grates, and brickwork, and have been unable to discover any evidence of the slightest injury to either from the use of the Smoke Preventers. The boiler tubes require cleaning but once a week, and are then found free from gummy soot. As an evidence that they result in a saving of fuel, at a trial it showed nine per cent. saving of coal, and until they were put on we were obliged to use both boilers durin the summer, but during the past summer one boiler was adequate to all requirements. We use soft coal for fuel, and at present are using our boilers to their full capacity, and the result, so far as smoke is concerned, is entirely satisfactory and unquestionable. The following tests of this apparatus were made at our factory in June last: June 22—With Smoke Preventer in operation. 2,433 pounds of coal consumed in seven hours and twenty minutes. Weight of water evaporated– 21,600 pounds. 8.88 pounds of water per pound of coal. Steam pressure, 66 pounds. Comparatively little smoke at any time. June 23—Without Smoke Preventer in operation. 2,433 pounds of coal consumed in six hours and forty minutes. Weight of Water evaporated– 18,823 pounds. 7.73 pounds of water per pound of coal. Steam pressure, 64 pounds. At each firing, and from five to eight minutes afterwards, a heavy volume of smoke issued from the chimney. Yours truly, WM. S. KIMBALL & CO. BRANCH, The American Tobacco Co. F. B. DEMPSEY, Asst. Resident Manager. FOR PAMPHLETS ADDRESS . . . . JAMES SARGENT, ROCHESTER, N. Y. ADVERTISEMENTS. Wm. Simpson & Sons' •••Printed •••Fabrics ...Fast Colors... The Best Calico. Dress Goods, NOVELTIES, 1893. CANTON CLOTHS, BRANDENBURGS, BEDFORD CORDS, BROCADES, FINE SATINES, IN LATEST COLOR COMBINATIONS AND ANILINE FAST BLACK. FINE DRESS LININGS, FRENCH CAMBRICS, PERCALINES, 3-4 7-8 4-4 ......ALL SHADES AND FAST BALCK. Prictor, is it true as that Vermont woman said " 8C. In the Tribune you gave all the credit of my wit to Virginia Smith. Something is due me for [me] that oversight. If you will help me you shall not be ashamed of your protégie. Yours Mrs. Clinton Smith. 720 – 19th. St. N.W. Washington Jan 28th 1898. [*want to make a little speech on Eve — money money very nice — Mrs Fred. Douglass wants [1?]0 minutes sha?? — swift — grass — 28 after — sen???ll______*] Dear Mrs Colby For years I have been gathering material for a speech on Eve. I have it complete now but have never given it except by piecemeal. Last evening at the W.S.A. you heard two points and said they were good. There are twenty more as good or better & perfectly new. new on this old subject. They always make a hit. From a person well known in church circles as I am it takes one by surprise. It is full of suffrage matter too. Miss Anthony would like it I know. I wish you would manage to get me before Mrs. Avery. Perhaps she could give me 15 minutes on the programme of the coming convention. It is only 15 minutes long. Do you remember my going with you before the Senate committee in the Marble room 3 years ago. I occupied but two minutes yet Senator Proctor told my husband that my speech was thrown at him for weeks afterward. He said Senator [?] would call to him in the corridors "Hello Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.