Miss Anthony introduced Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, one of the foreign delegates to the convention, who said in part: "Norwegian women look back to the 25th of May, 1901, as a day of great victory, for on that day a bill was passed in our Parliament which granted Municipal suffrage to all women paying taxes on a certain limited income, about $100 a year, or whose husbands paid on such income. This law has thoroughly changed the position of the married woman and from having always been a minor she has suddenly become of age. It may be of interest to you of the United States, who can show so many tax paying women without any right to vote, to know that we were not able to get our Parliament interested in tax paying woman suffrage until the bill included wives also. The immediate result of this law has been the election of several women to important municipal positions; for instance, members of the common council in the capital; members of the board of aldermen; at one place chief assessor. Women may serve on juries and grand juries and have been appointed members of special congressional commissions. Several women doctors have been appointed in public institutions, on boards of health as experts for the Government, etc. Matrons have been employed at prisons where women are and special prisons for women in charge of a matron have been established. On the whole we begin to see the glory of the rising sun which will give us in a little while the bright, clear day."
Miss Vida Goldstein, a delegate from Australia, began her address: "I am very proud that I have come here from a country where the woman suffrage movement has made such rapid strides. The note was first struck in America and yet women today are struggling here for what we have had in Australia for years, and we have proved all the statements and arguments against woman suffrage to be utterly without foundation. It seems incredible to us that the women here have not even the School and Municipal suffrage except in a very few States. We have had this for over forty years and we have never heard a word against it. It is simply taken as a matter of course that the women should vote. They say that as soon as women get this privilege they are going to lose the chivalrous attentions of men. Let me assure you that a woman has not the slightest conception of what chivalry means until she gets a vote...." Miss Goldstein told of woman suffrage in New Zealand and produced the highest testimony as to its good results in both countries.
In closing the hearing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice president, said in part:
Our association desires you not only to report the resolution for this amendment favorably but to recommend the appointment of a committee to investigate this subject. Years ago when our women came before you we had nothing but theory to give you, what we believed would be the good results of woman suffrage if it were granted. The opponents had their theories and they stated the evils they believed would follow. The theory of one person is as good as that of another until it has been put to the test, but after that both sides must lay aside all theory and stand or fall upon facts. In four States women have the full suffrage. For more than thirty years they have been exercising it in Wyoming equally with men; in Colorado for nine years and in Utah and Idaho for six years. We do believe that from six to thirty years is long enough time to measure its effect. What we would like better than anything else is that Congress should appoint a committee of investigation, and that such a committee should investigate the result of woman suffrage in the States where it has already been granted.... So sure are we its report would be favorable that we are perfectly willing to stake our future on it. While we do not claim that only good would come from woman suffrage, we do believe that among all the people of a community or of a nation there are more good men and women than there are bad men and women, and that when we unite the good men and good women they will be able to carry measures for the general welfare and we will have better laws and conditions.
At the hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Representative John J. Jenkins, in the chair, expressed regret that George W. Ray of New York, the chairman, was unavoidably absent and said: "He is very much in sympathy with what the ladies desire to say this morning—much more so than the present occupant of the chair." Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Suffrage Association, who had charge of the hearing, said: "Mr. Chairman, we have just been holding an International Woman Suffrage Conference in the city of Washington, eight nations having sent official delegates from woman suffrage organizations, and several others have cooperated through correspondence, and we have invited representatives of these nations to come to you this morning and present some facts concerning the practical operation of suffrage in countries other than our own. Our first speaker will be Miss Vida Goldstein of Australia." Miss Goldstein gave in substance the address which will be found in the report of the Senate hearing, after which Mrs. Catt said: "Although I have been a resident and taxpayer in four different States and able to qualify as a voter I have never been permitted any suffrage whatever. I now have the privilege of introducing a Russian woman who has been a voter in her country ever since she was 21." Madame Friedland said in part:
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: In a country like Russia, with an absolute government, there is but little suffrage for either men or women but the little there is is equally shared by both. We do not, of course, vote for Czars; neither do we vote for Governors but the municipal officers are elected by the votes of the real estate owners regardless of sex. The woman, however, does not vote in person but transfers her vote to her husband, her son or her son-in-law and in case these are unable to vote for her she has the right to delegate her vote to an outsider. He simply has the proxy and votes as the woman dictates.
Russia, whose political institutions are the least liberal in Europe, has the most liberal laws in regard to the civil capacity of her women. Every woman, married or single, if she is of age, enjoys complete civil capacity. Marriage does not in any way change the rights of husband and wife over the property they possess or may acquire. The husband has no legal right whatever over the property of his wife and she is by no means under his guardianship. This may account for the fact that we have less divorce than in many other countries. We have different laws for the different social classes. A nobleman will pay his taxes according to the law for the nobility, while his wife may be a commoner and have to pay hers according to the laws for the commoners, but both are taxpayers and consequently both are voters. It is quite a common thing to see a woman of the people, a peasant woman, take her place and often her husband's place, as he has a right to delegate his vote to her at elections, and she may also take it at county meetings and assemblies of every kind. Lately the government of the peasantry have made an effort to deprive the women of the right to hold office but the Senate has prevented them on the ground that if women share the hard struggle for existence with the men, as they do in our remote rural districts, they must also share the privileges. Gentlemen, I hope I have your sympathy with the ideas practiced in my country for our women.
Mrs. Catt said of her next speaker: "It is eminently proper that a woman of Sweden should address you, where women have voted longer than anywhere else in the world."
Mrs. Emmy Evald. I stand before this legislative power of America representing a country where women have voted since the 18th century, sanctioned in 1736 by the King. The men gave suffrage to the women without their requesting it, because they believed that taxation without representation is tyranny. The taxpayer's vote is irrespective of sex. Women vote for every office for which their brothers do and on the same terms, except for the first chamber of the Riksdag. They have the Municipal and School suffrage, votes for the provincial representatives and thus indirectly for members of the House of Lords.