Miss Anthony was elected permanent chairman; Mrs. Catt, secretary; Mrs. Fenwick Miller, treasurer. Mrs. Catt moved that as an International Association was not yet permanently organized, each country should be asked to contribute something toward the general working expenses of printing, postage, etc., but the financial obligation should be left to its own discretion. It was decided that the plan of organization adopted by the conference be read to the convention of the National Suffrage Association then in session. To make the conference still more international in character a vice-chairman representing Germany was added and the appointment was left to the German societies. It was arranged that the committee should hold office till the meeting in Berlin. It was moved by Mrs. Friedland, seconded by Miss Fensham, that the foreign delegates accord their warmest thanks to the National American Suffrage Association for inviting them to the International Conference and for the many kindnesses shown them.
Mrs. Catt had sent out a list of twenty-eight questions to most of the countries and she reported that answers had been received from thirty-two. These questions covered property rights of women, occupations, wages, education, guardianship of children, divorce, office holding, suffrage and other legal and civil rights. The full and comprehensive answers, some of them from Consuls and other government representatives, were published in the official report of the conference and formed an invaluable collection of facts and statistics such as had never before been made. They gave a striking object lesson in the strong necessity for women to have a voice in the laws and the governments under which they live.
It had been suggested by Mrs. Catt that this conference should consider issuing a Declaration of Principles, expressing briefly the demand for independence and individuality which women are making today. Mrs. Fenwick Miller warmly supported the suggestion and a committee of three was appointed to draw it up—Mrs. Avery, Mrs. Evald and Miss Fensham. As finally submitted, discussed and accepted it formed the platform of the international organization and was adopted at each meeting for some years afterwards. It was called a Declaration of Principles and read as follows:
1. Men and women are born equally free and independent members of the human race, equally endowed with intelligence and ability and equally entitled to the free exercise of their individual rights and liberty.
2. The natural relation of the sexes is that of inter-dependence and cooperation and the repression of the rights and liberty of one sex inevitably works injury to the other and hence to the whole race.
3. In all lands those laws, creeds and customs which have tended to restrict women to a position of dependence, to discourage their education, to impede the development of their natural gifts and to subordinate their individuality have been based upon false theories and have produced an artificial and unjust relation of the sexes in modern society.
4. Self-government in the home and the State is the inalienable right of every normal adult and the refusal of this right to women has resulted in social, legal and economic injustice to them and has also intensified the existing economic disturbances throughout the world.
5. Governments which impose taxes and laws upon their women citizens without giving them the right of consent or dissent which is granted to men citizens exercise a tyranny inconsistent with just government.
6. The ballot is the only legal and permanent means of defending the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" pronounced inalienable by the American Declaration of Independence and accepted as inalienable by all civilized nations. In any representative form of government, therefore, women should be vested with all the political rights and privileges of electors.
ORGANIZATION OF THE ALLIANCE.
The International Woman Suffrage Committee, which had been formed at a conference in Washington, D. C., in February, 1902, and adjourned to meet in Berlin in June, 1904, was called to order on June 3, in the Prince Albert Hotel by the chairman, Miss Susan B. Anthony, who was warmly greeted by the women of all countries. The following report of this and subsequent meetings is condensed from the Minutes:
The program arranged by the officers was adopted as the order of business. Dr. jur. Anita Augsburg of the German Suffrage Association delivered a cordial address of welcome and Miss Anthony, in behalf of the visiting delegates, responded. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt presented a gavel from the women of Wyoming, who have enjoyed the right of full suffrage longer than any other women in the world.
Dr. phil. Käthe Schirmacher of Germany was appointed official interpreter; Miss Adelheid von Welczeck of Germany was made assistant secretary and was also appointed on the committee on credentials with Dr. Aletta Jacobs of Holland and Miss Edith Palliser of England. The roll call of nations showed delegates from the United States, Great Britain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand and Germany.
Guests and delegates from countries where no organization was affiliated with the International Committee were given the privileges of the conference except the vote. The Declaration of Principles was read and Dr. Schirmacher and Mlle. Camille Vidart of Switzerland were appointed to translate it into German and French for discussion. Dr. Augspurg read telegrams of greeting and good will from the French delegates, who were prevented from attending the conference.
It was agreed that the name of the new association be the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and a motion by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw (U. S. A.) that Miss Anthony be declared its first member was carried amid cheers. It was moved by Mrs. Lucretia L. Blankenburg of Philadelphia and unanimously carried that Miss Mary S. Anthony be the second member. It was voted that those delegates at the first conference in Washington who were not now present be invited to stand also as charter members of the permanent Alliance. The opportunity was then given for the affiliation of honorary associates and the following were accepted: Wilhelmine Sheriff Bain and Isabel Napier, New Zealand; Miss Anna Hude, Mrs. Charlotte Norrie, Mrs. Johanne Münter, Copenhagen; Mrs. Friederike von Mekler Traunwies, Austria; Leopold Katscher, Hungary; Mme. Chaponniere-Chaix, Mlle. Vidart, Switzerland.