The always-to-be-remembered feature of the week was Suffrage Day at the Exposition, arranged by its officials for the day following the convention. To quote again from Miss Blackwell:
In the morning on arriving at the Exposition we found above the gate a big banner with the inscription, "Woman Suffrage Day." Every person entering the grounds was presented with a special button and a green-ribbon badge representing the Equal Suffrage Association of Washington, the Evergreen State. High in the air over the grounds floated a large "Votes for Women" kite. All the toy balloons sold on the grounds that day were stamped with the words "Votes for Women" and many of the delegates bought them and went around with them hovering over their heads like Japanese lanterns—yellow, red, white or green but predominantly green. At the morning meeting in the great auditorium there was fine music by the Exposition band, with addresses of welcome from J. E. Chilberg, president; Louis W. Buckley, director of ceremonies and special events, and R. W. Raymond, assistant director, and brief speeches by Dr. Shaw, Miss Gordon, Mrs. Upton, Miss Blackwell, Mrs. Stewart, Miss Clay, Mrs. Kelley, Mrs. Gilman and Professor Potter.... After the morning exercises, the national officers were taken to the Education building and treated to an excellent lunch cooked and served by the domestic science class of the high school.
In the afternoon there was a reception in the magnificent room occupying the ground floor of the Washington State building with more addresses of welcome by prominent men connected with the Exposition and more short speeches by the visitors. Later in the afternoon there was another reception at the Idaho building by the Idaho and Utah women with more refreshments served by motherly matrons and pretty girls. The day closed with a "daylight dinner" given by the Washington Equal Suffrage Association at The Firs, the headquarters of the Young Women's Christian Association. Hundreds of suffragists sat down to the table within the building and on the large veranda looking off over a delightful prospect and there were many appreciative speeches. It was long after nightfall when the happy gathering broke up and the visitors then had a chance to see the fairy-like spectacle of the Exposition by night, with every building outlined in electric lights, the pools shimmering, the fountain gleaming and a series of cascades coming down in foam, with electric lights of different colors glowing through each waterfall.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] Part of Call: In entering upon the fifth decade of its work for the enfranchisement of women in the United States, the National American Woman Suffrage Association invites all those to share in its councils who believe that the help of women is needed by the Government. It is a grave mistake of statesmanship to continue to ignore the wisdom of the thousands of our women citizens, who, fitted by education and home interests, are anxious to help solve the many and vital problems upon which our country's future safety and prosperity depend....
During the year 1908 our cause won four solid victories. Michigan gave taxpaying women a vote on questions of local taxation and the granting of franchises; Denmark gave women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers a vote for all officers but members of Parliament; Belgium gave women engaged in trade a vote for the Conseils des Prudhommes; and Victoria in Australia gave full State suffrage to all women. The legislative hearings in New York, Massachusetts and Nebraska have called out unprecedented crowds showing the growth of popular interest.... The Legislatures of Oregon, Washington and South Dakota have voted to submit the question of woman suffrage to the electors in 1910. The workers for woman's political freedom have great cause for rejoicing.
| Anna Howard Shaw, President. | ||
| Rachel Foster Avery, First Vice-President. | ||
| Florence Kelly, Second Vice-President. | ||
| Kate M. Gordon, Corresponding Secretary. | ||
| Alice Stone Blackwell, Recording Secretary. | ||
| Harriet Taylor Upton, Treasurer. | ||
| Laura Clay, | } | Auditors. |
| Ella S. Stewart, | ||
The Call ended with the touching poem of the young Southern poet, Mrs. Olive Tilford Dargan, "The Lord of little children to the sleeping mothers spoke."
[61] The resolutions declared the movement for woman suffrage to be but a part of the great struggle for human liberty; called for the enactment of initiative and referendum laws; equal pay for women and men in public and private employment; uniform State laws against child labor and for compulsory education; more industrial training for boys and girls in the public schools; more strenuous effort against the white slave traffic. They demanded that the United States should take the lead in an international movement for the limitation of armaments. A cordial vote of thanks was given for the hospitality and courtesies of the city and the people of Seattle.