Resolved, that we ask the U. S. Government in its next census to classify definitely the unpaid women housekeepers as homemakers, thus recognizing their important service to the nation.
Resolved, that we call upon Congress to give military rank to army nurses.
Resolved, that we tender to our national president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, our deep appreciation of her sagacity, good judgment, fairness and indefatigable devotion to the cause of equal rights, and we pledge our best efforts to carry out her wise and far-reaching plans for ultimate victory.
The last evening of the convention was given to a second mass meeting at the Odeon Theater with Dr. Shaw presiding and a notable program. The first speaker was Miss Helen Fraser of Great Britain, who had been making a tour of the United States in the interest of the women's war hospital work of that country. She was announced on the program as "Great Britain's foremost speaker," and she eloquently pictured Women and the Future. The Hon. Henry J. Allen, Governor of Kansas, stirred the audience to enthusiasm with an address on Woman's Place in War and Peace. Mrs. Catt's splendid closing speech on Looking Forward ended a convention whose keynote throughout had been "progress"; a farewell to the past years of toil and disappointment, a preparation for the future work of women under better conditions than had ever before existed. A spirit of hope, courage and unlimited expectation pervaded the army of younger women, who were soon to take up the great work committed to their care.
On Saturday three important meetings took place. In the morning was the formal organization of the League of Women Voters, election of officers, appointment of committees and adoption of a program; also the final business session of the convention to harmonize the work of the National Association and that of the league. In the afternoon the two bodies met in joint session to discuss the question of how voting and non-voting women might best cooperate and the three following objects were agreed upon: (1) To secure the vote for all the women of the nation in the shortest possible time; (2) to obtain the vote for women in all civilized countries; (3) to carry out the legislative program of the new organization.
Thus ended the perfectly managed Jubilee Convention, probably the most important and far-reaching in the long history of the National Association.
HEARING ON THE FEDERAL SUFFRAGE AMENDMENT BEFORE THE
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON WOMAN SUFFRAGE OF THE 65TH
CONGRESS, JAN. 3-7, 1918.
There was no longer any necessity for a hearing before the Senate Committee on Woman Suffrage, as it had unanimously reported in favor of the Federal Amendment. The suffrage leaders were profoundly thankful that they would never again have to address a hostile Judiciary Committee of the Lower House, which not in all the years had permitted the amendment to come before the Representatives for discussion, and which had now under pressure reported it out but "without recommendation." A new era had dawned and a Committee on Woman Suffrage had been formed, whose chairman, Judge John E. Raker of California, by advice of Speaker Clark, had introduced another resolution for the submission of the amendment which was sent to this committee and it desired to have a hearing.[119] This began Jan. 3, 1918, and in opening it the chairman said: "We have determined to hear first the National American Suffrage Association and then the Woman's Party. There seem to be a few opponents—a few men—and they will be given an opportunity to be heard, as well as Mrs. Wadsworth and her organization." This hearing extended through four days and the stenographic report filled 330 closely printed pages. It was the last of the committee hearings on a Federal Suffrage Amendment which began in 1878 and had been held during every Congress since that date. If an investigator of this subject has time to read only one document it should be the report of this hearing.
The committee was composed of seven Democrats and six Republicans and it was well known that all but three—Saunders, Clark and Meeker—would report in favor of submitting the amendment. The National Suffrage Association was represented the first day by its honorary president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; its president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; the chairman of its Congressional Committee, Mrs. Maud Wood Park; Mrs. Rosalie Loew Whitney, an able lawyer of New York; Mrs. Guilford Dudley of Tennessee, a vice-president of the association; Mrs. Henry Ware Allen, a prominent suffragist and war worker of Kansas. Their speeches were among the strongest ever made at a hearing. Those of the opponents show the character of their objections up to the very end of the long contest. Dr. Shaw's address was especially notable for two reasons: it was devoted largely to the work of women in the war, which was now at its height, and it was the last one before a congressional committee by this eloquent woman, who had been coming to the Capitol for almost thirty years in behalf of the amendment, as she died the following year. She was introduced as having been appointed by the Secretary of War chairman of the Woman's Committee of National Defense and as such the head of the war work of women throughout the country. Dr. Shaw began by referring to the new line of attack which was now being made on suffragists as pro-Germans and pacifists but scattered quotations can give small idea of the strength and beauty of her answers to these charges. Regarding the one of pacifism she said:
We grant that we are in favor of peace; we grant that we have a large sympathy for the sufferings of humanity, but we also claim to be possessed of intelligence and knowledge and these have convinced us that there could be nothing more disastrous to the human race than a peace at this time, which would lead to greater suffering than a continuation of the war. Therefore, because we love peace and because we have large sympathy for human sufferings, we are opposed to anything that will bring a peace which does not forever and forever make it impossible that such sufferings shall again be inflicted on the world, and the women of all countries take that stand with us. We have only to face the present situation to know that any charges that women as a whole are not courageous, are not patriotic, are not devoted to the highest interests of their country are wholly false.... Even before war was declared the National American Woman Suffrage Association met in convention in this city and was the first organized body of women to formulate a definite line of action and present to the President and the Government a plan which would be followed by its more than 2,000,000 members, provided hostilities went so far that war should be declared. The President accepted our services, and not only did he accept them but the devotion of the suffragists to the welfare of the country was so uniformly recognized that when the Government decided upon war and upon the necessity for organizing the woman-power of the nation, it called upon the leaders of this association and appointed them on a committee for co-ordinating the war work of women throughout the United States. Can it for a moment be supposed that the men in whose charge the great interests of our nation rested would have called upon women whom they did not know to be thoroughly endowed with patriotic devotion and loyalty to their country for such a service at such a time?