A valuable report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women and Children was made by Mrs. Kelley, chairman of the committee, which she began by saying that during 1905 eleven States had improved their Child Labor Laws or adopted new ones and in every State suffragists had helped secure these laws. She said that wherever woman suffrage was voted on its weakness proved to be among the wage-earners of the cities and she urged that the association submit to the labor organizations its bill in behalf of wage-earning women and children with a view to close cooperation. To the workingmen woman suffrage meant chiefly "prohibition" and an effort should be made to convince them that it includes assistance in their own legislative measures. Mrs. Kate S. Hilliard (Utah) answered the question, Will the Ballot Solve the Industrial Problem? Wallace Nash spoke on the work of the Christian Cooperative Federation. The leading address of the afternoon was made by Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch of Chicago on The Educational Problem. "It is a strange anomaly in American public life," he said, "that we have given our schools largely into the hands of women who must teach history and patriotism but are not considered competent to vote. I plead for the same education for boys and girls and I urge you to take a deep interest in the public schools." He gave testimony to the excellent legislative work women had done along many lines and declared that "women pay taxes and do public service and hold up before men the standard of righteousness and they ought to have a vote," and closed by saying: "We need appeals to the heart and conscience in our schools and a revival of conscience. We need a standard of character and conscience and women can bring it into the schools much better than men can. The woman, because she is a woman, is less easily corrupted than the man who has forgotten that he had a mother. If we must disfranchise somebody, it would better be many of the men than the women."
At one meeting Judge Roger S. Greene, who was Chief Justice of the Territory of Washington when the majority of the Supreme Court gave a decision which took away the suffrage from women and who loyally tried to preserve it for them, was invited to the platform and received an ovation. At another time Judge William Galloway, a veteran suffragist, was called before the convention, and after referring to his journey to Oregon by ox-team in 1852 told of his conversion by Mrs. Duniway when he was a member of the Legislature at the age of 21. National conventions were of daily occurrence during the Exposition and a number of them called for addresses by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw and other suffrage speakers. At the evening session preceding the last Miss Mary S. Anthony, 78 years old, read in a clear, strong voice the Declaration of Sentiments adopted at the famous first Woman's Rights Convention in 1848, which she had signed. The rest of the evening of July 4 was given to what the Woman's Journal spoke of as "Mrs. Catt's noble address," The New Time, beginning:
This is a glorious Fourth of July. In a hundred years the United States has grown into a mighty nation. This last has been a century of wonderful material development, but we celebrate not for this. July 4 commemorates the birth of a great idea. All over the world, wherever there is a band of revolutionists or of evolutionists, today they celebrate our Fourth. The idea existed in the world before but it was never expressed in clear, succinct, intelligible language until the American republic came into being.... Taxation without representation is tyranny, it always was tyranny, it always will be tyranny, and it makes no difference whether it be the taxation of black or white, rich or poor, high or low, man or woman.... The United States has lost its place as the leading exponent of democracy. Australia and New Zealand have out-Americanized America. Let us not forget that progress does not cease with the 20th century. We say our institutions are liberal and just. They may be liberal but they are not just for they are not derived from the consent of the governed. What is your own mental attitude toward progress? If you should meet a new idea in the dark, would you shy? Robespierre said that the only way to regenerate a nation was over a heap of dead bodies but in a republic the way to do it is over a heap of pure, white ballots.
"Mrs. Catt was awarded the Chautauqua salute when she appeared on the platform," said the Oregonian, "and it was some minutes before the former president of the association could proceed. She spoke eloquently and at considerable length and in this assemblage of remarkably bright women it was plain to be seen that she was a star of the first magnitude." It was hard for the convention to accede to Mrs. Catt's determination to retire from even the vice-presidency of the association because of her continued ill health but they yielded because this was so evident. Mrs. Florence Kelley was the choice for this office and in accepting she said: "I was born into this cause. My great-aunt, Sarah Pugh of Philadelphia, attended the meeting in London which led to the first suffrage convention in 1848. My father, William D. Kelley, spoke at the early Washington conventions for years." Dr. Eaton was again obliged to give up the office of second auditor on account of her professional duties and Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, who had so successfully planned and managed the convention, was almost unanimously elected. No other change was made in the board.
Among the excellent resolutions presented by the chairman of the committee, Mr. Blackwell, were the following:
Whereas, the children of today are the republic of the future; and whereas two million children today are bread-winners; and whereas the suffrage movement is deeply interested in the welfare of these children and suffragists are actively engaged in securing protection for them; and whereas working-men voters are also vitally interested in protection for the young bread-winners; therefore,
Resolved, That it is desirable that our bills for civil rights and political rights, together with the bills for effective compulsory education and the proposal for prohibiting night work and establishing the eight-hour day for minors under eighteen years of age, be submitted to the organizations of labor and their cooperation secured.
The frightful slaughter in the Far East shows the imperative need of enlisting in government the mother element now lacking; therefore we ask women to use their utmost efforts to secure the creation of courts of international arbitration which will make future warfare forever afterwards unnecessary.
We protest against all attempts to deal with the social evil by applying to women of bad life any such penalties, restrictions or compulsory medical measures as are not applied equally to men of bad life; and we protest especially against any municipal action giving vice legal sanction and a practical license.... We recommend one moral standard for men and women.
The list of Memorial Resolutions was long and included many prominent advocates of woman suffrage. Among those of California were Mrs. Leland Stanford, Judge E. V. Spencer and the veteran workers, Mrs. E. O. Smith and Sarah Burger Stearns, the latter formerly of Minnesota; Jas. P. McKinney and Jas. B. Callanan of Iowa; Helen Coffin Beedy of Maine. Twenty-two names were recorded from Massachusetts, among them the Hon. George S. Boutwell, President Elmer H. Capen, of Tufts College; the Hon. William Claflin, the Rev. George C. Lorimer, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney; Mrs. Martha E. Root, a Michigan pioneer; Grace Espey Patton Cowles, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Montana. The Rev. Augusta Chapin, D. D., Dr. Phoebe J. B. Waite, Bishop Huntington, James W. Clarke, Dr. Cordelia A. Greene, were among the ten from New York; Mayor Samuel M. Jones, among seven from Ohio. Five pioneers of Pennsylvania had passed away, John K. Wildman, Richard P. White, Mrs. Mary E. Haggart, Miss Matilda Hindman, Miss Anna Hallowell. Cyrus W. Wyman of Vermont and Orra Langhorne of Virginia were other deceased pioneers; also Mrs. Rebecca Moore and Mrs. Margaret Preston Tanner, who were among the earliest workers in Great Britain.