The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume V

by Unknown

Dr. Shaw added her own fine appreciation of the two men and speaking from almost a lifetime of acquaintance with Mr. Garrison gave a glowing eulogy of his noble character, lofty convictions and fearless courage, a worthy son of a great father. Among other prominent friends of woman suffrage who had passed away during the year, recorded in the memorial resolutions, were Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court; Dr. Borden P. Bowne, head of the department of philosophy and dean of the graduate school in Boston University; Judge Charles B. Waite and Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson of Chicago; Charles Sprague Smith, director of Cooper Institute, New York, and many devoted workers in the various States.

At one interesting evening session Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.) spoke on Republics versus Women, the title of her book; Mrs. Meta L. Stern on Woman Suffrage from a Socialist's Point of View; Miss Alice Paul on The English Situation. Mrs. Catt's subject was Caught in a Snare and the convention voted to have it printed for circulation. As Miss Alice Stone Blackwell was ill at home, missing the annual convention for the first time, the readers of the Woman's Journal were deprived of her usual comprehensive reports and abstracts of the speeches where the manuscript was not available. That of Miss Paul was published in full. She had recently returned from London, where she had been a member of Mrs. Pankhurst's organization, had been sent to prison, had gone on a "hunger strike" and been forcibly fed, and she felt the situation keenly. A part of her speech was as follows:

As we gather here as suffragists, our hearts naturally go out to those women at the storm-center of our movement—to those women in Great Britain who are having a struggle such as women have never had in any other land. The violent criticism, the suppression and distortion of facts from which they have suffered at the hands of the politically-inspired press of their own country have made it difficult for one on this side to gain any true conception of their movement....

The essence of the campaign of the suffragettes is opposition to the Government. The country seems willing that the vote be extended to women. This last Parliament showed its willingness by passing their franchise bill through its second reading by a three-to-one majority, but the Government, that little group which controls legislation, would not let it become law. It is not a war of women against men, for the men are helping loyally, but a war of men and women together against the politicians at the head, who because of their own political interests seem afraid to enfranchise women. The suffragettes have gone with petitions to the head of the Government, as our representatives will go in a few days to the authorities in Washington. Here they will be received with courtesy, but Mr. Asquith has never since he has been Prime Minister received a deputation of women on this question of their suffrage. Each time he curtly refuses to see them and orders the police to drive them away or arrest them. Thirteen times the deputations of one society alone have been arrested....

The Earl of Lytton said the other day that more violence had been done by the men during the three weeks of the recent election than by the women during their entire agitation. Such action on the part of voters is wrong for they have a constitutional way, through the ballot, of redressing their grievances, but on the part of a disfranchised class, after half a century's trial has proved all their methods to be of no avail, a protest such as these women have made seems entirely right. We are so close at hand that perhaps we hardly realize the full significance of their movement. The greatest drama that is being enacted in the world today, it seems to me, is the battle of the British women. When historians can look back from the perspective of a century or two I think they will say that this talk of dreadnaughts and budgets and House of Lords was after all of but little moment and that the great event of world significance in Great Britain early in the century was the magnificent struggle for political freedom on the part of her women.

The comprehensive report of the corresponding secretary, Professor Potter, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and was a complete summary of the year's work and that which should be done. Names were given of about forty associations which had passed resolutions for woman suffrage during the year, preceded usually by discussion. These included Federations of Labor, Granges, Temperance Societies, Federations of Women's Clubs, religious bodies and labor organizations. Among the last were the International Typographical Union, International Chair Workers, Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees, American Federation of Labor, National Women's Trade Union League and many others. She called attention to the fact that in many instances the endorsement was unanimous and that the labor resolutions were stronger than ever before, using the phrase "our intention to secure woman suffrage." The Pennsylvania Federation said: "In selecting candidates for political office we will endeavor to secure men who are committed to a belief in the right of women to vote."

Professor Potter emphasized the need of research experts to bring the statistics up to date, as it was now impossible to answer the requests for information from the best type of those asking it, university graduates working for higher degrees, men and women writing articles, books, plays, etc. She reported the beginning of a card catalogue of subjects and the progress made toward carrying out the instructions of the Seattle convention that the national headquarters undertake a handbook of Federal and State Laws for Women and a bibliography. She described the character of the thousands of letters sent out, covering work for prize essays, poster campaigns, mass meetings, "settlement" work, appointments of women, newspaper and magazine publicity and especially organization along political lines. As she had been asked to act as field lecturer as well as corresponding secretary she reported fifty-four lectures given, not only at State suffrage conventions but before men's leagues, press clubs, labor meetings, churches, universities, etc.

The convention showed by a rising vote its full appreciation of this report, which was the first and last given by Professor Potter as corresponding secretary. Differences in regard to administration had arisen which proved to be irreconcilable and she had declined to stand for re-election. The Official Board was divided in opinion and this led to several changes in its personnel. Dr. Shaw was re-elected president; Mrs. Avery, first vice-president; Mrs. Stewart, second vice-president; Mrs. Upton, treasurer; Miss Clay and Miss Blackwell, first and second auditors. Mrs. Florence Kelley declined re-nomination as second vice-president and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was elected. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett (Mass.) was chosen for corresponding secretary. Later in the convention Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton gave in their resignations, which the delegates refused to accept and then both announced that their offices would be vacant in one month. Mrs. Upton had been treasurer of the association since 1893 and the delegates were most reluctant to let her go. By action of the Executive Committee Mrs. McCulloch was advanced to the office of first vice-president; Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) was made second vice-president and Miss Jessie Ashley (N. Y.), treasurer.

The National College Equal Suffrage League held business sessions Saturday forenoon and afternoon with its president, Dr. M. Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr presiding, and a luncheon was given for its delegates. Miss Caroline Lexow made the annual report. At the evening meeting of the convention Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. Y.), representing the Equal Franchise Society, of which Mrs. Clarence Mackay was president, spoke on The Sisterhood of Women, saying in part: "We have plenty of work to do but it is not that, it is not the organization, the growth of membership and the spread of theories that make me confident of success. It is the extraordinary spirit that animates the women who are working for suffrage, the sense of comradeship and community among them, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, old and young, mothers and daughters. We have been taught to admire the 18th century because it did so much to dissolve class distinctions. It broke down some of the barriers, not between man and woman, but between groups of men, for within groups men have always had this spirit of comradeship, and oh, how they have valued it! They did not get it in domestic relations, however happy; or in friendships, however warm. They got it, or rather they found a field in which to exercise it, in the impersonal activities of their lives, in their crusades, guilds, colleges, labor unions and clubs. But between women the barriers have been of a more serious type. They have been segregated not only class by class but individual by individual and house by house. Now these barriers too are dissolving. Women are finding an expression for their sense of comradeship, for their impersonal loyalty to their own sex; they are waking up to the fact that a sense of equality is more thrilling to those who have the right stuff in them than any sense of superiority could ever have been."

Miss Harriet E. Grim of Wisconsin University described The Call of the New Age to College Women. Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz, president of Barnard chapter of the College League, discussed Education and Social Progress. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, "Dorothy Dix," in an address on The Real Reason why Women cannot Vote, gave a delightful imitation of the voice and words of a wise old negro, "Mirandy," from which the following is quoted: