[5] Miss Anthony had entreated Mrs. Stanton to send instead of this letter to the convention one of her grand, old-time arguments for woman suffrage but she refused, saying the time was past for these and the church must be recognized as the greatest of obstacles to its success. Miss Anthony felt that it would arouse criticism and prejudice at the very beginning but declared that no matter what the effect she would give what would probably be Mrs. Stanton's last message. A number of the officers and delegates were interviewed for the press and none was found who fully agreed with Mrs. Stanton's views. The Rev. Olympia Brown and the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw believed the obstacles to be in the false interpretation of the Scriptures and its application to women. The Methodist General Conference had this year admitted women delegates.
[6] Invocations were pronounced at different sessions by the resident ministers, C. B. Mitchell, George F. Holt and Martin D. Hardin, and by the visiting ministers, Alice Ball Loomis, Celia Parker Woolley, Kate Hughes and Margaret T. Olmstead.
[7] Whereas, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901, affirm that ever since November, 1898, the military authorities in Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken similar action; therefore
Resolved, That we earnestly protest against the introduction of the European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the United States for the following reasons:
1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving official sanction to vice.
2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory medical measures that are not applied to vicious men.
3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the community, everywhere fails to protect the public health.
Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that had ever tried the system.
[8] The question of giving to women a vote for Representatives by an Act of Congress is considered in [Chapter I, Volume IV, History of Woman Suffrage].
[9] Among the donations which brought in the largest sums were the locomobile from Mr. and Mrs. A.L. Barber of New York; the Kansas consignment of fine flour and butter secured by Miss Helen Kimber of that State; the carload of hogs from Iowa farmers obtained by Mrs. Eleanor Stockman of Mason City; the handsomely dressed doll from Mrs. William McKinley and a fine oil painting by the noted landscape painter, William Keith of California.