Two novel evening programs were devoted to The New Woman and The New Man, the first with the following speakers: Mrs. Helen Adelaide Shaw of Boston; Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer of New Orleans, known far and wide as "Dorothy Dix," said to receive the highest salary of any woman journalist; Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, a prominent physician and surgeon of Minneapolis; Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.) who had taken the highest honors in the Law Class of Cornell University; the Rev. Ida C. Hultin, a successful Unitarian minister of Boston. Miss Margaret Haley of Chicago, who led the great fight of the Teachers' Federation of that city to compel the big corporations to pay their taxes in order that the public schools should not be crippled for lack of funds, could not be present because of a crisis in the legal proceedings. Each of the women representing the four professions of law, medicine, theology and journalism, in addresses scintillating with humor, reviewed the early prejudices which had been overcome, told of the large number of women who had entered the field when the opportunity came but showed that they could never have an even chance until there was complete obliteration of sex prejudice. Little idea of their interest could be obtained from fragmentary paragraphs.
The house was crowded to hear about The New Man,[20] represented first on the program by Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of William Lloyd Garrison and owner and editor of the New York Evening Post, who gave a spirited and effective account of Women in the New York Municipal Campaign. This was the first in which women ever had taken a prominent part and it had attracted wide attention, a revolt against Tammany corruption under Richard Croker. Mr. Villard told of the remarkable work done by the Women's Municipal League under direction of the Citizen's Union for the election of Seth Low as Mayor and a reform ticket. He paid a sarcastic tribute to the assistance of the women anti-suffragists. "To have been really consistent," he said, "they should have urged upon their more emancipated sisters that woman's sphere is the home and any steps that lead beyond it tend in the long run to the destruction both of the home and of the eternal feminine." He closed by declaring that "the Titanic struggle between right and wrong in the great cities can not be won without the cooperation of that half of the nation's citizens in whose hearts are ever found the truest ideals of family and society, of city life and State life and of national existence." At its conclusion Mrs. Catt said: "And yet after Mr. Low was elected Mayor of Greater New York a large number of the women who had helped him win the victory urged him to appoint some women on the school board and he refused. So we must suppose that he is willing to have women pull the chestnuts out of the fire for men but is not willing to give them a share of the chestnuts."
A feature of the evening was the scholarly address of the Hon. William Dudley Foulke (Ind.), president of the U. S. Civil Service Commission. He objected to being classed as a "new man," since long ago he was for several years president of the American Suffrage Association. "Men would not be satisfied with indirect influence," he declared and continued: "It is often said that woman suffrage is just but that there is no need of it, because women have no interests separate from those of men. That argument was used to me only lately by an eminent political economist. I said: 'Suppose a railroad runs through a town and a woman owns a large property in that town and yet cannot vote on the question of raising a subsidy; are her interests necessarily the same as those of every man in the town?' My friends, that case is universal. Suppose a widow is trying to bring up her son in the principles of morality and a saloon is opened on the corner opposite her home. I do not speak as an advocate of prohibition but I do say that the interest of the mother is different from that of the man who sells liquor. Or suppose she is bringing up a daughter; she has a sacred right to protect that daughter from a libertine. Her interest is certainly different from that of the tempter.... We do not realize what an immense waste there is in denying woman entrance to political life. She ought to have free access to anything she is qualified to do and where she is not qualified she will drop out."
John S. Crosby, a prominent Democratic leader of New York, made a thorough analysis of the functions of the State and the Government, showed the utter fallacy of constituting men the governing and women the governed class and closed as follows: "Attempt to prove that woman's claim to the right of suffrage is as valid as any that man can make would be like trying to demonstrate the truth of a self-evident proposition.... We ask the ballot for woman not merely because she has a right to it but quite as much because it is her duty to exercise that right. The irresistible power of that all-embracing organization, the State, holds you and me and all that are dear to us as its helpless and often hopeless subjects. The combined wisdom of all of us would be none too great for its intelligent administration and we demand for our own sake and for the sake of those that shall come after us that the wisdom of woman shall be included; not only that her delicate, intuitional sense of justice shall leaven the lump of public opinion but that her deft hand shall help to knead it into the bread of righteous law. We ask as one of the rights that government is bound to secure that in the administration of its power it shall make use of the fullest wisdom of the whole people; that the entire popular brain and social conscience shall take cognizance of and be responsible for all acts of government. Not until then shall we see true democracy; not until then shall we indeed have a government of the people, by the people and for the people."
The next day was one always commemorated by suffragists—the birthday of Susan B. Anthony—this time the 82nd. The Woman's Journal began its account: "As Miss Anthony sat at breakfast on February 15, with one of the jars of delicious cream before her that were sent her daily by the president of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association, she was unexpectedly surrounded by the foreign delegates in a body. A birthday greeting drawn up and signed by them was read aloud by Mrs. Florence Fenwick Miller of England, while the rest, grouped behind her, bent forward listening with attentive faces—a pretty picture. Among the gifts which she received during the afternoon session were a canoe full of flowers from 'one of the girls' with a poem; a handsome feather boa from Mrs. Swift and Mrs. Sperry of California; a cup made from the wood of the floor under the table on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, presented in the name of Mrs. General Geddes; a bouquet of red roses from Prof. Theodosia Ammons of Colorado Agricultural College; potted plants from the Swedish and Norwegian delegates; over $500 from Mrs. Fanny Garrison Villard, Miss Emily Howland, Mrs. Kenyon, Mrs. W. W. Trimble, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, Mrs. William M. Ivins and other friends; also quantities of fruit and flowers. The address was as follows:
We, the undersigned, Foreign Delegates to the first International Woman Suffrage Congress, gladly take the opportunity of your 82nd birthday to express to you our love and reverence, our gratitude for your lifelong work for women, and are rejoicing that you have lived to see such great steps onward made by the world at large in the direction in which you led at first under such prejudice. Praying that you may enjoy years of health, cheered by every fresh advance, we remain, your loving friends,
Florence Fenwick Miller, England; Sofja Levovna Friedland, Russia; Carolina Holman Huidobro, Chili; Gudrun Drewsen, Norway; Vida Goldstein, Australia; Emmy Evald, Sweden; Antonie Stolle, Germany.
[Later the foreign delegates gave Mrs. Catt a handsomely engraved silver card case.]
The Washington Times said of the occasion:
The Rev. Anna Howard Shaw presented a large basket of fruit from some of the principal suffrage workers with these touching words: "Miss Anthony, you have been more than a leader to us of your own country, more than a teacher, more than a counselor, you have been our beloved friend. Take this with our love for you, dear, dear friend." This completed Miss Anthony's conquest and she almost broke down. There has been very little emotionalism in this convention but for some minutes there was ample proof all over the hall that being delegates to a suffrage convention had not made any woman forget how to cry. Mrs. Catt finally came to Miss Anthony's rescue in a little speech full of tender appreciation: "The greatest thing about Miss Anthony to my mind is her utter unselfishness and lack of self-consciousness. As we came up the aisle the other night and the audience broke into a thunder of applause for her whom all love, Miss Anthony looked about to see what caused it and then asked: 'What are they applauding for?' She credits all attentions to herself as for the cause and it is dearer to her than life. Last night at an hour when all respectable women suffragists should have been in bed, the treasurer and I put our heads together and decided that we would ask all of you to give a present to the association on Miss Anthony's birthday instead of giving it to her. We know her well enough to be sure this is what she would like best."