Dr. Yami Kin said:
All countries look to North and West for inspiration and help in their march toward freedom.
Mme. Montessori said:
We have watched individual States in your country give justice to women, one by one. Now we are waiting for the United States to declare its women free.
The Convention passed Resolutions calling upon the Sixty-fourth Congress to vote for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. Sara Bard Field and Frances Joliffe were selected as envoys to carry the Resolution across the country to Congress. A plan was made for the envoys to travel slowly eastward, holding meetings and collecting signatures to the petition; arriving in Washington the day Congress assembled. Mabel Vernon acted as advance guard for this expedition and was more responsible than anybody else for its success.
The final ceremony of the Convention took place in the Court of Abundance on the night of the day which had been designated by the directors of the Exposition as the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage Day. On that evening, Mr. M. H. DeYoung, on behalf of the directors of the Exposition, presented Mrs. Belmont for the Congressional Union with a bronze medal in recognition of the work of the Congressional Union. Ten thousand people gathered there to witness it. They listened rapt to the speeches, and then—lighting their way by thousands of golden lanterns—accompanied the envoys to the gates.
The national Suffrage Edition of the San Francisco Bulletin, edited by Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, assisted by Doris Stevens as city editor, Mrs. John Jay White as art editor and Alice Paul as telegraph editor, charmingly described the scene:
The great place was softly and naturally lit except for the giant tower gate flaming aloft in the white light, which focussed on it as on some brilliant altar. Far below, like a brilliant flower bed, filling the terraced side from end to end, glowed the huge chorus of women, which was one of the features of the evening. Those at the top—hardly women—were the girls of the Oriental School, from midget size up, in quaintly colorful native costumes. In the foreground were the Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian girls in their peasant costumes, and, stretching the length of the stage, like a great living flag of the Congressional Union, were massed Union members in surplices of the organization colors. The effect was one of exotic brilliancy.
Back of the stage, curtaining the great arch, fluttered the red, white, and blue emblem of the nation that women have sacrificed as much to upbuild as the men; but significantly waving with the Stars and Stripes hung the great Suffrage banner, that ringingly declared: WE DEMAND AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES ENFRANCHISING WOMEN. And the great crowd in the Court joined in the swelling song that another band of women across the sea, fighting for liberty, had originated. Every one was catching the words:
“Shout, shout, up with your song!