Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who, to the great happiness of suffragists on several continents, had entirely recovered her health, was now making a trip around the world in the interest of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, of which she was president. At one session a letter from her was read, dated at Kimberly, South Africa, which was enthusiastically received. It said in part:
At the very moment that you will be planning the work for the sixty-third year of the American suffrage campaign, the suffragists of this new-east of all nations will be sitting in their first national convention at Durban, the metropolis of Natal. The movement here is young but is wholly unlike the beginnings of the campaigns in England and America, for our revered pioneers fought their battle against the prejudice and intolerance of their time for the women of the whole world. These women are beginning at the very point where we of the older movements find ourselves today. The old-time arguments are not heard and here, as everywhere, expediency and political advantage are the causes of opposition.
No two cities could be more unlike than Louisville and Durban. The latter lies in a tropical country with its buildings buried in masses of luxuriant and brilliant flora, all unfamiliar to American eyes. The delegates will look out upon the placid waters of the Indian Ocean and will ride to and fro from their meetings in rickshas drawn by Zulus in the most fantastic dress imaginable, the chief feature being long horns bound upon the head. In Louisville it will be autumn, in Natal it will be spring. Yet, dissimilar as are the scenes of these two conventions, the women composing them will be actuated by the same motives, inspired by the same hopes and working to the same end. The rebellion fomented in that little Seneca Falls convention has overspread the wide earth and from the frigid lands above the North Polar Circle to the most southerly point of the Southern Temperate Zone, the mothers of our race are listening to the new call to duty which these new times are uttering. It is glorious to be a suffragist today, with all the hard times behind us and certain victory before.
May wisdom guide us to do the right thing; may love unite us; may charity temper our differences and may we never forget the obligations we owe the blessed pathfinders of our movement who made the present position of our cause possible!
The election resulted in several changes in the board of officers. Dr. Shaw was re-elected. Mrs. McCulloch declined to stand for re-election as first vice-president and Miss Gordon as second and Miss Addams and Professor Breckinridge were chosen. For corresponding secretary Mrs. Dennett was re-elected. Mrs. Stewart withdrew as recording secretary and Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Mass.) was elected. Miss Ashley was re-elected treasurer. Mrs. Robert M. LaFollette was elected first auditor and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.) second. Later Mrs. LaFollette declined to serve and Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick was appointed by the board.
In all preceding conventions there had been such unanimity in the choice of officers that the secretary had been able to cast the informal ballot for the election. This new division of sentiment was frequently illustrated during the meetings and indicated that an element had come into the movement, which, as usual with newcomers, wanted a change to accord with its ideas. This was particularly noticeable in the discussion of the proposed new constitution but the differences of opinion were peaceably adjusted by compromise.
After the election Mrs. McCormick, who had recently come into close touch with the National Association, spoke on the Effect of Suffrage Work on Women Themselves, saying in part: "So much attention has been given to the growth and development of the movement for woman suffrage that the effect on the women themselves has been lost sight of or has been little considered but today it is becoming clear that the cause of suffrage is more valuable to the individual woman than she is to the cause. The reason is that this movement has the great though silent force of evolution behind it, impelling it slowly forward; whereas the individual is largely dependent for her development on her own powers and especially on those expressions of life with which she brings herself into contact. The woman suffrage movement offers the broadest field for contact with life. It offers cooperation of the most effective kind with others; it offers responsibility in the life of the community and the nation; it offers opportunity for the most varied and far-reaching service. To come into contact with this movement means to some individuals to enter a larger world of thought than they had known before; to others it means approaching the same world in a more real and effective way. To all it gives a wider horizon in the recognition of one fact—that the broadest human aims and the highest human ideals are an integral part of the lives of women."
The report of the Committee on Church Work by its chairman, Mrs. Mary E. Craigie, (N. Y.) began: "It is estimated that there is in the United States a total church membership of 34,517,317 persons. It would mean a great deal to the woman suffrage cause if this great organized force, representing the most thoughtful and influential men and women of every community, could be brought to endorse it and work for it. The experiences of this committee seem to prove that in the transition taking place in the world of religious thought this is the most propitious time to obtain such support." She gave a résumé of the splendid work that had been done by the branch committees in the various States, the religious gatherings that had been addressed, often resulting in the adoption of a resolution for woman suffrage, and the hundreds of letters sent to ministers asking for sermons favorable to the cause, which were many times complied with. She closed by saying: "It needs neither figures nor argument to establish the fact that church attendance and church worship are in a condition of decline. It is a critical period in the history of the church, which is changing from the exercise of power to the employment of influence, and the appeals that are coming to the churches are for service from the men and women who are their real strength. The church is not appreciating the resources that are lying dormant, when two-thirds of its membership—the women—are left powerless to carry on the moral and social reform work, because, as a disfranchised class having no political status, they are not counted as a potential force."
Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.), chairman, made the report on Presidential suffrage. The report of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration, Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead (Mass.), chairman, spoke of the Ginn Endowment of a million dollars for the World's Peace Foundation and of Mr. Carnegie's great gift of ten million dollars, creating a fund to secure the peace of the world. It told of the vast work that was being done for peace by the women in the various States and said: "The world for the first time has seen the head of a great government declare that all questions between nations can be peacefully settled. President Taft's noble effort to secure treaties with other nations, to ensure arbitration between them of every justiciable question, should command the gratitude of every patriotic woman. I had hoped to felicitate you on the ratification of these treaties by the necessary two-thirds of the Senate, but in chagrin and disappointment I must instead appeal to you to endeavor instantly to create such public sentiment as shall result in December in the acceptance of the treaties without amendment. If they are thus ratified they will be secured not only with Great Britain and France but certainly Germany, and I have no doubt Japan and most other nations will agree to identical treaties."
Miss Florence H. Luscomb (Mass.) gave an interesting report of the Sixth Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held in Stockholm in June, 1911. [See chapter on the Alliance.] Mrs. Agnes M. Jenks, proxy for the president of the New Hampshire association, asked assistance in getting a clause for woman suffrage in the new constitution to be made for that State. Conferences were held throughout the week on legislative work, district organization, publicity, raising money and other branches of the vast activities of the association. The convention Monday afternoon adjourned early in order that the members might enjoy the hospitality of the Woman's Club of Louisville at a "tea" in their attractive rooms, and at another time take the beautiful Riverside Drive. One evening was devoted to light entertainment with two suffrage monologues by Miss Marjorie Benton Cooke; a suffrage slide talk by Mrs. Fitzgerald; a clever speech portraying the results if women voted, by Miss Inez Milholland (N. Y.) and the sparkling play, How the Vote Was Won, read by Miss Fola La Folette. A striking address was given one afternoon by Mrs. T. P. O'Connor, an American woman but long a resident of England and Ireland, who took for her subject, Let Our Watchword be Unity.