[10] At Miss Anthony's request Mrs. Harper had sent her a letter to read to the convention giving some details as to the scope of the Sun articles, in which she said: "I consider the success of this department due above all else to the fact that it deals with current events. Its text each Sunday is taken from the occurrences of the preceding week as they relate to women.... Letters of commendation and of criticism have been received from all parts of the United States and from London, Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Dresden, Zurich and Rome and from Melbourne. Among the writers are bishops and ministers, publishers, educators, authors, college presidents, physicians, women's societies, workingmen's organizations and scores of men and women in the private walks of life. One article brought twenty-five pages of legal cap from lawyers in New York and Brooklyn. It is a noteworthy fact that it is the first metropolitan daily paper to make a woman suffrage department a regular feature."
The articles were published until the autumn of 1903, almost five years. Mr. Dana then sold the paper and it went under the control of William A. Laffan, an anti-suffragist, who discontinued them.
[11] Other local chairmen were Irma Winchell Stacy, Mrs. A. T. Anderson, J. Bryan Bushnell, Dr. Margaret Koch, Mrs. James Harnden, Mrs. H. A. Tuttle, Mrs. Marion D. Shutter, Lora C. Little, Nellie Keyes, Mrs. Sanford Niles, Martha Scott Anderson, Josie A. Wanous, Gracia L. Jenks, Dr. Corene J. Bissonette, Mrs. Stockwell and Mrs. Gregory.
[12] Among those who took part in conferences and on committees were Helen Rand Tindall (D. C.); Annie R. Wood (Cal.); Ellen Powell Thompson (D. C.); Mariana W. Chapman, Lila K. Willets and Florence Gregory (N. Y.); Clara Bright and Jean Gordon (La.); Etta Dann (Mont.); Emily B. Ketcham and Maud Starker (Mich.); Maude I. Matthews (N. D.); Eleanor M. Hall (O.); Helen Kimber (Kas.); Eleanor C. Stockman, Dr. Frances Woods and Dollie R. Bradley (Ia.); Emily S. Richards (Utah); Bertha G. Wade (Ind.); Clara A. Young (Neb.); Evelyn H. Belden (Ia.); Addie N. Johnson (Mo.); Mrs. E. A. Brown (Minn.); Cornelia Cary (Brooklyn); Ida Porter Boyer (Penn.). Valuable reports were made by all of the State presidents.
[13] At the close of the convention twenty-seven of the visitors made a trip in a special car to Yellowstone Park, which was arranged by Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay. They had a most interesting time which was graphically described by Miss Blackwell in the Woman's Journal of June 22. It also published some of the humorous poems written en route by the gay excursionists.
CHAPTER II.
THE NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1902.
The association held its Thirty-fourth annual convention, which was especially distinguished by the presence of visitors from other lands, in the First Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C., Feb. 12-18, 1902.[14] There was special significance in this meeting place, as the pastor of the church for many years was the Rev. Byron Sutherland,[15] who from its pulpit had more than once denounced woman suffrage and its advocates; but it was now under the liberal ministry of the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, their strong and valued advocate. The Washington Post said: "More than a thousand visitors were present yesterday afternoon at the first session of the National American Suffrage Convention and the first International Woman Suffrage Conference. Perhaps no other meeting of its kind ever has occasioned as much interest on the part of Washington women generally.[16] The large audience room was packed to the doors ... and it has been arranged to hold overflow meetings in the church parlors." The platform was banked with flowers over which waved the flags of thirty nations, lent by Miss Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross, to whom they had been presented by representatives of each individual nation. Above them all hung the "suffrage flag" with four golden stars on its blue ground for the four States where women were fully enfranchised—Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho. The president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was in the chair.