The great fear that the participation of women in public affairs will impair the quality and character of home service is irrational and contrary to the tests of experience. Does an intelligent interest in the education of a child render a woman less a mother? Does the housekeeping instinct of woman, manifested in a desire for clean streets, pure water and unadulterated food, destroy her efficiency as a home-maker? Does a desire for an environment of moral and civic purity show neglect of the highest good of the family? It is the "men must fight and women must weep" theory of life which makes men fear that the larger service of women will impair the high ideal of home. The newer ideal that men must cease fighting and thus remove one prolific cause for women's weeping, and that they shall together build up a more perfect home and a more ideal government, is infinitely more sane and desirable. Participation in the larger and broader concerns of the State will increase instead of decrease the efficiency of government and tend to develop that self-control, that more perfect judgment which are wanting in much of the home training of today.

A comprehensive review was made of the great events in the world's history during the past year and the work of the National American Suffrage Association was described. "Whatever others may say or do," she declared, "our association must not accept any compromises. We must guard against the reactionary spirit which marks the present time and stand unfalteringly for the principle of perfect equality of rights and opportunities for all.... Never was there a time when heroic service was more needed—not the spectacular heroism marching with flying banners and weapons of destruction but the quiet, earnest heroism of men and women standing steadfastly by that which seems right and rigidly adhering in daily intercourse to that sterling honesty of purpose which ennobles character and develops the best in a nation's life." This inspiring address, all of which was on the same high level as the portions quoted, thus concluded:

We are told that to assume that women will help purify political life and develop a more ideal government but proves us to be dreamers of dreams. Yes, we are in a goodly company of dreamers, of Confucius, of Buddha, of Jesus, of the English Commons fighting for the Magna Charta, of the Pilgrims, of the American Revolutionists, of the Anti-slavery men and women. The seers and leaders of all times have been dreamers. Every step of progress the world has made is the crystallization of a dream into reality. To look forward to a time when men shall be just, when "fair play and a square deal for all" will include women, when our republic shall in truth become what its dreamers have hoped it would be, a government "of the people, by the people and for the people,"—this is a dream but it is a dream which we are helping to make real, and the result will come not alone because a vision has been revealed but by following it steadfastly to its fruition. The idealists dream and the dream is told, and the practical men listen and ponder and bring back the truth and apply it to human life, and progress and growth and higher human ideals come into being and so the world moves ever on.

During the several business sessions the following action was taken: It was directed that a letter be sent to the President-elect, Theodore Roosevelt, asking him to recommend the submission of a 16th Amendment in his message to Congress; that as many organizations of women as possible be secured to unite in urging him to do so, following the methods employed by the Protest Committee (a committee appointed to wait upon him to present this request); that the Banker, Starr, Underwood and Green bequests amounting to $3,801 be appropriated for campaign work in Oregon and the Territories. Miss Clay announced that Miss Laura Bruce had bequeathed $5,000 to her in trust for the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

The work conferences established by Mrs. Catt during her administration were held with the following among the questions discussed: Must we supplement our present form of organization to achieve our "argument of numbers"? How can we best spread our ideas in other organizations? The field in 1904 and 1905. Our request in 1904 for a plank in the national platforms. These conferences, which had been a feature of the conventions for eight years, were dropped after this one but many of the practical subjects formerly discussed in such conferences were placed on the regular program. Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch presided at the conference on How can we nationalize our request for a 16th Amendment? At its conclusion it was voted to refer to the Business Committee the idea of asking the suffragists of the four free States to instruct their Senators and Representatives in Congress to move for the submission of a 16th Amendment. It was her thought that all the State suffrage associations should send petitions to their respective Congressmen asking for a 16th Amendment to the National Constitution enfranchising women; that earnest efforts should be made to have other organizations take similar action and every means employed to bring the question before them.

The reports of the standing and special committees and those from the various State presidents, which occupied the morning and afternoon sessions, were excellent and valuable as usual. Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) in her corresponding secretary's report called attention to the conspicuous triumph for woman suffrage when the great International Council of Women, whose delegates represented practically the whole civilized world, at its meeting in Berlin the preceding year unanimously endorsed woman suffrage and appointed a standing committee on Citizenship and Equal Rights, with Dr. Shaw as its chairman. She read letters from the Governors of the four equal suffrage States regretting their inability to be present for Woman's Day at the Exposition and giving the strongest possible endorsement of the practical working of woman suffrage.

The report of Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, headquarters secretary, of the first year's work in its new home at Warren, O., was most interesting. The letters sent out numbered 14,000 and included three during the year to the president of every local club, giving information, plans of work and encouragement. The bureau had over 1,200 individual correspondents. Nearly 44,000 copies of Progress went to newspapers, public men, delegates to the political conventions and subscribers. About 65,000 pieces of literature exclusive of Progress were distributed, going to every State and Territory, to Canada, England, Holland and Australia. In addition thousands of booklets, political equality leaflets and souvenirs of various kinds were sent forth as propaganda. The report of Mrs. Catt, chairman of the Committee on Literature, showed that it had provided 62,000 of these pieces and had printed about 100,000 during the year. Miss Anthony had presented to the association ten sets of the History of Woman Suffrage and eighty copies of the new Volume IV to be sold, Miss Hauser said. Headquarters were maintained at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The work inaugurated by Miss Anthony of securing resolutions for woman suffrage from conventions of various kinds was successfully continued. Fraternal delegates were sent to national conventions and the U. S. National Council of Women had created a Committee on Political Equality. Nineteen State organizations adopted resolutions endorsing woman suffrage; fraternal delegates from suffrage associations were sent to eighteen other State gatherings and the question was given a hearing at six Territorial conventions; greetings were sent to three, literature distributed in four and woman suffrage day observed in three State gatherings. Add to these the 283 societies (not suffrage) which reported adopting resolutions on the Statehood Protest and there is positive knowledge that the question was before and received favorable action from 339 societies in 1904. A full report was given of the effort to obtain woman suffrage planks in the platforms of the political parties, delegates from the association being sent to all. [See Chapter XXIII.]

An outstanding feature of the year's achievements was what was known as the Statehood Protest. At the beginning of the 58th Congress a bill passed the Lower House providing for the admission to Statehood of Oklahoma, Indian, Arizona and New Mexico Territories under the names of Oklahoma and Arizona. It contained a clause saying that "the right of suffrage should never be abridged except on account of illiteracy, minority, sex, conviction of felony or mental condition." The association's legal adviser, Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch of Chicago, was consulted by Mrs. Upton and Miss Hauser the preceding June as to how the word "sex" could be eliminated. She took the matter under consideration and laid her plan before the Business Committee in September. It called for a nation-wide protest from women's organizations and individuals. The committee approved but did not feel able to make a sufficient appropriation. The report continued:

When the result was communicated to Mrs. McCulloch by letter she answered post-haste: "We dare not let this work go undone. I will raise the money for it myself." The headquarters undertook to do the work. We appealed to the president or the corresponding secretary for directories of associations and as fast as names were secured copies of the circular letter of the Woman's Protest Committee, written by Miss Blackwell, were sent out. This letter was signed by twenty-six women, among them presidents of the following national organizations: Council of Women, Council of Jewish Women, Woman Suffrage Association, Teachers' Federation, Catholic Women's League, Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic, Lutheran Women's League, Congress of Mothers, etc., and 34,000 were sent out with 28,000 leaflets, "Why Women Should Protest." Perhaps no more spontaneous response was ever given to anything than to this letter. All sorts of societies, not of women only but of men and of men and women, protested. More than 400 reported their action to headquarters. The number of individuals who reported that they had written to Senator Albert J. Beveridge (Ind.), chairman of the Committee on Territories, and to their own Senators was so great that we could not keep a record. Newspapers the country over commented on the matter, hundreds of clippings on the subject sometimes being received in one mail.

What was the result? Under date of Dec. 16, 1904, Senator Beveridge notified headquarters that the Senate Committee had unanimously voted to strike out the objectionable word "in accordance with your very reasonable request." It was a great victory and more than paid for the labor. Mrs. McCulloch was as good as her word and raised the money to defray all the expenses, giving $100 herself and securing from her friend and ours, Mrs. Elmina Springer of Chicago, $500; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift of California, president of the National Council of Women, contributed $50; our own president, Miss Shaw, gave $25 and there were some small contributions. The work was most economically done, the printing and envelopes costing $118, the postage over $300 and a balance was left.[37]

The report of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, showed receipts for the year to be $14,662, including bequests of $4,237 from Mrs. Henrietta L. Banker of New York and $500 from Mrs. Armilla J. Starr of Michigan; $2,000 from Mrs. Charlotte A. Cleveland of New York and $100 each from Mrs. Jonas Green of Virginia and Mrs. Helen J. Underwood of California. The disbursements were $12,437. Miss Hauser asked for the money for the next year's work and $4,614 were quickly subscribed. A large number of $50 life memberships were taken. One hundred one-dollar pledges were made in memory of Sacajawea. Mrs. Catt guaranteed that Mrs. Upton and herself would raise $3,000 for the Oregon campaign.

Henry B. Blackwell, chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, gave the welcome information that the U. S. Supreme Court through Chief Justice Fuller had rendered a decision that "the power of every State Legislature in the appointment of presidential electors is plenary, exclusive and final." The report of Mrs. Ida Porter Boyer, chairman of the Libraries Committee, was read by Mrs. Blankenburg and showed that thus far a bibliography of 823 books, pamphlets, etc., on woman suffrage had been compiled. One book bore the date of 1627. Another had the title "No Female Suffrage; Theology, Logic, Anatomy, Physiology and Philology United to Establish the Truism that Woman is No Human Being." Mrs. Blankenburg went as fraternal delegate to the convention of the National Libraries Association meeting in Portland at this time and gave part of this report, which was received with much interest and cooperation was promised.

The report of Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman of the Press Committee, was as complete and valuable as usual. It said that 80,000 general suffrage articles had been sent out and 6,000 papers supplied by the chairman and committee since the last convention. Each paper in Portland had been furnished with personal sketches of every officer and speaker connected with the convention and copies of all the reports and speeches that could be obtained, as was customary wherever a convention was held. In referring to special articles she said that 5,000 copies from members of the association and residents of Colorado had been sent out in answer to the charges that woman suffrage was responsible for the recent election frauds in that State, which seemed to be made by every opponent who could wield a pen. Answers were widely distributed to the report of the Mosely Educational Commission sent here from Great Britain, and the Male Teachers' Association of New York, to the effect that women should not be employed to teach boys over ten years of age and that teaching was interfering with the marriage of many women and keeping them from their proper place in the world. The article of former President Grover Cleveland in the Ladies' Home Journal denouncing women's clubs and particularly suffrage clubs had been almost universally commented on by the press and required extensive attention. A reply to Cardinal Gibbons's address to the women graduates of Trinity College, Washington, by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper was sent to eighty metropolitan papers and hundreds of shorter ones were scattered broadcast. The excellent work of the various State press chairman was described.

One afternoon was devoted to a conference on How Can We Best Utilize the Press? Mrs. Harper presided and nearly twenty speakers took part. One of the Portland papers commented: "If the great political organs of the United States knew how well these women have the tricks of the trade at their fingers' ends they would employ special detectives to watch for suffrage literature in disguise." Mr. Lathrop, editor of the Portland Journal, said: "A newspaper man in his official capacity is not an educator but a seller of news. One who would treat a suffrage convention as a negligible quantity would lose his job. The question is not how you can get matter about women into the papers but how you can keep it out." Mrs. Florence Kelley added: "We all know to our sorrow that women cannot keep out of the papers but the question is how to get our subject in them in a way to promote it. I can recommend the following method: Write something in editorial style just about as you want it to appear and send it to the editor with a deprecatory note to the effect that it is only raw material but perhaps it could be whipped into an editorial by his able pen. The chances are that the first time he is hard up for one he will use it—probably beheaded or with the end off or the middle amputated to show that the editor is editing, but it will be published."

Miss Anthony was asked for reminiscences of her famous paper, the Revolution, published in New York in 1868-70. Mrs. Duniway gave an interesting account of her paper, the New Northwest, begun in 1871 in Portland and continued for a number of years with the help of her five young sons. She expressed her love for the Woman's Journal, "the dear, reliable, old paper started by Lucy Stone and kept going by the heroic efforts of her husband and daughter," and many joined in this expression. Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby (D. C.), editor of the Woman's Tribune, told of the press conference at the International Council of Women. Mrs. Julia B. Nelson (Minn.) and Miss Amanda Way (Ind.) were among the veteran writers who spoke. Miss Blackwell gave experienced advice and a number of younger women made brief but clever suggestions.

An interesting part of the convention was Woman's Day at the Exposition on June 30 and this day had been chosen for the dedication of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who led the Lewis and Clark Expedition thousands of miles through the wilderness unknown to white men. It was thus described: "The statue, a beautiful creation in bronze, was the work of Miss Alice Cooper of Denver, a pupil of Lorado Taft, the figure full of buoyancy and animation, a shapely arm suggestive of strength pointing to the distant sea, the face radiant, the head thrown back, the eyes full of daring." The exercises were in charge of the Order of Red Men and the Women's Sacajawea Association, Mrs. Eva Emery Dye, president, and on the platform facing the statue prominent members of the convention sat with President Goode, of the Exposition, Mayor Lane and other dignitaries. Miss Anthony and Mrs. Duniway spoke during the unveiling and presentation ceremonies and Dr. Shaw pronounced the benediction. [See Oregon chapter.]

The afternoon session of the convention was held in Festival Hall on the grounds and greetings were offered for organizations, including the Young Woman's Christian Association by Mrs. L. E. Rockwell and Women's Medical Association by Dr. Esther C. Pohl. Dr. Sarah A. Kendall of Washington responded. The Los Angeles Suffrage Club sent a greeting and Mrs. Helen Secor Tonjes brought one from the New York City Equal Suffrage League. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman gave an original poem. Mrs. Mabel Craft Deering, a graduate of California State University and the Hastings Law School of San Francisco, read an able paper on Coeducation. Its sentiments were strongly endorsed by Professor William S. Giltner, president of Eminence College, Kentucky, one of the earliest women's colleges, from its beginning in 1858 to its close in 1894. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, under the title, Sowing the Seed, gave an interesting account of the early trials of her mother and two aunts, the pioneer doctors, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an aunt by marriage, the pioneer woman minister, who was on the platform, said: "Ever since I made my first suffrage speech in 1848 I have believed that the cause of woman suffrage was the cause of religion and vice versa." Mrs. Maud Wood Park read the eloquent address of Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead on The Organization of the World.

Mrs. May Arkwright Hutton (Idaho), who spoke for the equal suffrage States, gave this unique reminiscence of her early life in Ohio when William McKinley, a young lawyer, after speaking in the town hall, was a guest of her grandfather. She said in part: "Mr. McKinley carried the lantern, leading me by the hand, while I led grandfather, we little dreaming that the kindly young man guiding a child and an old, blind man through the wintry night would some day guide the destiny of the nation. On reaching home, I brought cider, apples and doughnuts from the cellar that we might have what grandfather called a 'schold check' before going to bed. The fire roared in the wide chimney place; grandfather sat in his armchair, Mr. McKinley opposite and I on a low stool between them. They talked of the late war, reconstruction and woman's rights. Then it was that I learned that women were denied rights enjoyed by men. Mr. McKinley deplored the fact and contended that woman was the intellectual equal of man and should be his political equal. Patting my head he said: 'I believe when this lassie grows up she will be a voter.'"

At the close of the session a reception for Miss Anthony and the officers, speakers and delegates was given in the Oregon building by its hostess, Dr. Annice Jeffreys (Mrs. Jefferson) Myers, assisted by Mrs. Coe, the State president. The big reception hall and the parlors were filled with visitors from all parts of the country. The Oregonian said: "When Miss Anthony, the honored guest, reached the Oregon building the band played Auld Lang Syne and the crowds became so dense that it was with difficulty Dr. Myers could escort her to the parlors. Here she stood in line for more than an hour, women and men pressing around her wanting just a word and they got it! She declared that it did not make her nearly so tired as she used to feel when nobody wanted to take her hand." In a letter to the Woman's Journal Miss Blackwell said: "Both in the convention and at all the social functions Miss Anthony has been the central figure, the object of general admiration and affection. It is the strongest possible contrast to the unpopularity and persecution of her early days. All these attentions were most gratifying to the members of the convention, who appreciated her courage and devotion in making this long journey at the age of 85, and afterwards they were remembered with especial pleasure because it was the last in which she was able to take an active part."

The social courtesies during the convention were unbounded. The Woman's Club gave a large evening reception in the rooms of the Commercial Club and Mrs. Arthur H. Breyman, its president, opened her handsome residence for an afternoon tea. Mrs. Coe gave a dinner party of about thirty, her lovely home decorated in yellow flowers, the suffrage color. Mrs. Hutton had a handsome dinner of thirty covers at the Portland Hotel and the Ode which she had written and dedicated to the convention was sung by Mrs. Alice Mason Barnett of San Francisco here and at the convention. Private dinners and teas were of daily occurrence and the drives around this beautiful city and its environs were a never failing delight.

At one evening session C. E. S. Wood (Ore.) spoke on The Injustice of Majority Rule in a cynical strain, believing that woman suffrage was right but fearing it would not do as much good as its advocates hoped for. Now suffrage meant "little stuffed men going to a little stuffed ballot box" and he was afraid "women would take their place on the chess board to be moved in the game by some power they did not see." After he had finished Dr. Shaw observed: "I would rather be a little stuffed woman having my own say than to be ruled by a little stuffed man without my consent, and the only way we will cease to have little stuffed men is for them to be born of free mothers."

Dr. Harriet B. Jones of Wheeling, W. Va., told of the unsuccessful campaign to have Municipal suffrage for women included in its new charter. "The anti-suffrage women of New York and Massachusetts," she said," flooded the newspapers with literature and the heaviest opposing vote came from the lowest and most ignorant sections of the city." In answer to the request of the Wheeling women the National Association had sent Miss Hauser to take charge of the campaign and appropriated funds for it. A telegram to Dr. Shaw from Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, was read, saying: "Kindly convey fraternal greetings to the officers and delegates of your convention and the earnest expression of our hope for the enfranchisement and disenthrallment of women." A telegram of greeting was received from Mrs. Frederick Schoff, president of the National Congress of Mothers. One came from the National Suffrage Association of Denmark.

Mrs. Harper gave an address under the subject Facing the Situation, showing the satire of the disfranchisement of one-half the citizens in a Government boasting of being founded on individual representation. In closing she said: "Eastward the star of woman's empire takes its way. She does not look for the star in the East but for the star in the West. Her sun of political freedom rose not in the East but in the West. It is to the strong, courageous and progressive men of the western States that the women of this whole country are looking for deliverance from the bondage of disfranchisement. It is these men who must start this movement and give it such momentum that it will roll irresistibly on to the very shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Today the eyes of the whole country are on this beautiful and progressive State. This magnificent Exposition has been a revelation of its splendid powers. It is an anomaly, a contradiction, a reproach indeed that in the midst of these wonderful achievements one-half of its citizens should be in absolute political subjection, without voice or share in affairs of State. Are you not ready now to wipe out that paltry 2,000 majority which five years ago voted to continue this unjust condition? Would it not add the crowning glory to this greatest period in your history if the free men of Oregon should decree that this shall be, henceforth and forever, the land also of free women?" The Rev. J. Burgette Short expressed regret that his church, the Methodist Episcopal, had refused to ordain Dr. Shaw and said it was much poorer in consequence. "You represent the brains of the world," he said to the delegates, "and you have my hearty interest and support in your work."

A noteworthy address was made by the Hon. W. S. U'Ren, known as "the father of the Initiative and Referendum," which was then in its early stages but had been adopted by Oregon and some other States. The convention was much impressed by this innovation, as the suffragists had long struggled against the refusal of Legislatures to submit their question to the voters, and Mrs. Catt offered a resolution that "the convention affirms its belief in the Initiative and Referendum as a needed reform and a potent factor in the progress of true democracy." It was enthusiastically received and later adopted by the convention, contrary to the habit of the association to consider only subjects relating directly to women and children.[38]

Under the pen name of Lucas Malet, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, a daughter of Charles Kingsley who was a strong believer in woman suffrage, had published an article in the London Fortnightly Review attacking it and quoting President Roosevelt as an opponent. A long resolution giving his favorable record for the past twenty-five years on questions relating to women was presented and adopted, against the judgment of many delegates. A committee was appointed to ask him for a more definite expression on woman suffrage.[39]

Telegrams of greeting were sent to veterans in the cause—Mrs. Laura de Force Gordon, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent of California; Mrs. Caroline E. Merrick of Louisiana; Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Col. T. W. Higginson, Mrs. Judith W. Smith of Massachusetts; Mrs. Armenia S. White of New Hampshire; Miss Laura Moore of Vermont; Mrs. Margaret W. Campbell of Iowa.

The Committee on Legislation for Civil Rights, Mrs. Blankenburg, chairman, reported that among measures the suffragists had worked for, the child labor laws had been strengthened in New York, Pennsylvania and California; the "age of consent" had been raised in Illinois and Oregon; laws had been passed in several States requiring that women should be appointed to public boards and women physicians to public institutions, California leading. In Massachusetts a petition that women might take part in nominating candidates for the school board, for which they were allowed to vote, signed by 100,000 women, was refused by the Legislature. School suffrage was granted to women in the first class cities of Oklahoma.

Mrs. Mead, chairman of the Committee on Peace and Arbitration seems to outshine the preceding one but last night's was the one in Portland; of the series of articles published in preparation for the International Peace Congress in Boston in 1904 and the work she had done in connection with it; of the many lectures given to universities and clubs and of the arrangements to have the public schools observe the anniversary of the first Hague Conference.

The Oregonian said: "Each program given by the convention seems to outshine the preceding one but last night's was the best thus far." The speakers were Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, former president of the Illinois Suffrage Association; the Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell (N. J.); Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall (Ia.); Miss Gail Laughlin (N. Y.); Judge Stephen A. Lowell, one of Oregon's leading jurists. Judge Lowell reviewed the political situation, the evils that had crept into the Government and the remedies that had been tried and failed and he summed up his conclusion by saying: "The reforms of the last century have come from women. Man has few to his credit because he could not measure them by the only standard he had mastered, that of the dollar. Witness the movement for female education led by Mary Lyon, the birth of the Red Cross in the work of Florence Nightingale, the institution of modern prison methods under the inspiration of Elizabeth Fry and the campaigns for temperance and social purity under the leadership of Frances Willard. The electorate needs the inspiring influence of women at the ballot box and the full mission of this republic to the world will never be met until she is admitted there. Not color or creed or sex but patriotic honesty must be the test of citizenship if the republic lives."

Mrs. Stewart took up the objections made by many of the clergy to woman suffrage and applied these to the ministers themselves. "They should not vote," she said with fine sarcasm, "because like women they are exempt from jury duty. They seldom go to war—some of them are too old, others too delicate, some too near-sighted, some too far-sighted. Ministers as a rule are not heavy tax-payers. Many of them do not want to vote and do not use the vote they have. A preacher has not time to vote. It might lead him to neglect his pastoral duties. Political feeling often runs high and if he voted it might make quarrels in the church. The minister has a potent indirect influence. He would be contaminated by the corruption of politics. He is represented by his male relations; they are not as good and pure as he is and are probably immune from contamination by politics."

Mrs. Catt, who presided, in presenting the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, one of the first to make the fight for the right of women to speak in public, said: "The combination of her sweet personality and her invincible soul has won friends for woman suffrage wherever she has gone." Her address on Suffrage and Education showed the evolution in woman's work. "My grandmother taught me to spin," she said, "but the men have relieved womankind from that task and as they have taken so many industrial burdens off of our hands it is our duty to relieve them of some of their burdens of State." Introducing Mrs. Coggeshall of Iowa Mrs. Catt said: "When I get discouraged I think of her and for many a year she has been one of my strongest inspirations." A Portland paper commented: "Her snow-white hair and demure face give no indication of the brilliant repartee and sharp argument of which she is capable." In her Word from the Middle West she said: "Its women are determined to have the ballot if they have to bear and raise the sons to give it to them. This scheme is in active operation. I myself have raised three—eighteen feet for woman suffrage—and others have done better. No bugle can ever sound retreat for the women of the Middle West." The Oregonian said of Miss Laughlin's address:

Her arguments are the straight, convincing kind that leave nothing for the other fellow to say. She comes to Oregon a lawyer of New York who is proudly boasted of, and justly, by her fellow workers as the woman who carried off the oratorical honors of Cornell and won for that institution the championship in intercollegiate debating contests.... In asking for a "Square Deal" Miss Laughlin said:

"'A square deal for every man.' These words of President Roosevelt were more discussed during our last presidential campaign than was any party platform plank. The growing prominence of the doctrine of a square deal is of vital significance to us who stand for equal suffrage, as we ask only for this. It has been invoked chiefly against 'trusts.' We invoke the doctrine of a square deal against the greatest 'trust' in the world—the political trust—which is the most absolute monopoly because entrenched in law itself and because it is a monopoly of the greatest thing in the world, of liberty itself. The exclusion of women from participation in governmental affairs means the going to waste of a vast force, which, if utilized, would be a great power in the advance of civilization.... But there depends on the success of the equal suffrage movement something more valuable even than national prosperity and that is the preservation of human liberty. Now, as in 1860, 'the nation cannot remain half slave and half free,' and either women must be made free or men will lose the liberty which they enjoy."

Sunday services were conducted at 4:30 in the First Congregational church by the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, pastor of the First Unitarian church of Des Moines, Ia., assisted by Dr. Shaw and the Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes of Los Angeles, with a special musical program. Miss Gordon had filled the Unitarian pulpit in the morning, giving an eloquent sermon on Revelations of God. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman had preached in the Congregational church in the morning and the Rev. Mrs. Blackwell in the evening. Miss Laura Clay gave a Bible reading and exposition in the Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal church in the evening. The Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor of the White Temple, the large Baptist church, invited Miss Anthony to occupy its pulpit and expound "any doctrine she had at heart." The Oregonian said: "She took him at his word and got in some of the best words for suffrage that have been put before the Portland public. There was such enthusiasm over the venerable founder and leader of the suffrage movement that when she appeared on the rostrum the applause was as vigorous as though it had not been Sunday and the place a church. There was not room in the big Temple for another person to squeeze past the doors." The papers quoted liberally from the sermons of all and the Portland Journal said: "Each preached to a congregation that taxed the capacity of the church.... The welcome accorded the women by the Portland pastors was sharply in contrast with the hostility shown by the clergy when equal suffrage conventions began in the middle of the last century.[40]

The Monday evening session was opened by Willis Duniway, who gave a glowing appreciation of the work of the National American Suffrage Association and said in the course of a strong speech that he wanted to see woman suffrage because it was right and because he wanted the brave pioneer women who had worked for it so long to get it before they passed away. "I want my mother to vote," he declared amid applause.[41] "The basis of safe and sane government is justice, which has its roots in constitutional liberty and means equal rights and opportunities.... I claim no right or privilege for myself that I would not give to my mother, wife and sister and to every law-abiding citizen." When he had finished his mother rose and said dryly: "That, dear women from the north, east, south and west, is one of Mrs. Duniway's poor, neglected children!"

Miss Mary N. Chase, president of the New Hampshire Association, spoke convincingly on The Vital Question, taking as the keynote: "A republic based on equal rights for all is not the dream of a fanatic but the only sane form of government." I. N. Fleischner, who had just been elected to the school board largely by the votes of women, assured the convention of his approval and support of the measures it advocated and said he hoped to see the women enjoying the full right of suffrage in Oregon in the very near future.

Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers' League, spoke with deeper understanding than would be possible for any other woman of The Young Bread-winner's Need. "We have in this country," she said, "2,000,000 children under the age of sixteen who are earning their bread. They vary in age from six and seven in the cotton mills of Georgia, eight, nine and ten in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania and fourteen, fifteen and sixteen in more enlightened States.... In some of the States children from six to thirteen may legally be compelled to work the whole night of twelve hours," and she described the heart-breaking conditions under which they toil. She urged the need of woman's votes to destroy the great evil of child labor and said: "We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children."

In introducing Mr. Blackwell, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, who was presiding, said: "As we came across the continent what impressed me most was the mountains. First came the foothills, then the high mountains and then the grand, snow clad peaks. Some of us are like the foothills, just raised a little above the women who have all the rights they want; then come those on a higher level of public spirit and service, who are like the mountains; and then the pioneers rising above all like the snow covered peaks." Taking the ground that "the perpetuity of republican institutions depends on the speedy extension of the suffrage to women," Mr. Blackwell said in his sound, logical address: "How can we reach the common sense of the plain people, without whose approval success is impossible?... A purely masculine government does not fully represent the people, the feminine qualities are lacking. It is a maxim among political thinkers that 'every class that votes makes itself felt in the government.' Women as a class differ more widely from men than any one class of men differs from another. To give the ballot to merchants and lawyers and deny it to farmers would be class legislation, which is always unwise and unjust, but there is no class legislation so complete as an aristocracy of sex. Men have qualities in which they are superior to women; women have qualities in which they are superior to men, both are needed. Women are less belligerent than men, more peaceable, temperate, chaste, economical and law-abiding, with a higher standard of morals and a deeper sense of religious obligation, and these are the very qualities we need to add to the aggressive and impulsive qualities of men."

The Journal in commenting on this address said: "A venerable and historical figure is that of Henry B. Blackwell, who in company with his daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, is in attendance upon the national suffrage convention. This snowy-haired, white-bearded patriarch embodies in his voice, his presence, his interest in every passing event, in his appreciation of every beauty of earth and sky, in the shifting panorama of nature, the loyal spirit of freedom, the true spirit of manhood that has dominated his passing years."[42]

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.

Special resolutions were adopted for Mrs. Mary A. Livermore and U. S. Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts; Col. Daniel R. Anthony of Kansas; Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Ohio. The eloquent resolutions prepared by Mr. Blackwell ended: "Never before in a single year have we had to record the loss of so many faithful suffragists. Let the pioneers who still survive close up their ranks and rejoice in the accession of so many young and vigorous advocates, who will carry on the work to a glorious consummation." The California delegation presented the following resolution, which was enthusiastically adopted: "Resolved, That we remember with the deepest gratitude the one man who has stood steadfast at the helm, notwithstanding constant ridicule and belittlement on the part of the press during the early years of the work, unselfishly and unceasingly devoting his life to the self-imposed task year after year, never faltering, never seeking office or honors but always a worker; one who has grown gray in the service—Henry B. Blackwell."

Invitations were received to hold the next convention in Washington, Chicago and Baltimore. The by-law requiring that every alternate convention must be held in Washington during the first session of Congress was amended to read "may be held." The Woman's Journal said: "Miss Anthony favored the change and Mr. Blackwell opposed it—an amusing fact to those who remember how strongly he used to advocate a movable annual convention and Miss Anthony a stationary one in Washington. Evidently neither of them is so fossilized as to be unable to see new light." The invitation of the Maryland Woman Suffrage Association was accepted.

The dominant interest of the convention had been in a prospective campaign for a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution of Oregon. The Legislature had refused to submit it but under the Initiative and Referendum law this could be done by petition. Public sentiment throughout the State seemed to indicate that it was now ready to enfranchise women and officials from the Governor down believed an amendment could be carried. All the officers of the State Suffrage Association had joined in the invitation to the National Association to hold its convention of 1905 in Portland and inaugurate the campaign and to assist it in every possible way. After the report of the State vice-president, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers, had been read to the convention of 1904 a resolution had been moved by Mrs. Catt, seconded by Miss Anthony and unanimously adopted, that the association accept this invitation and a pledge of $3,000 had been made. Throughout the present convention the speeches of public officials and the pledges made on every hand encouraged the members to feel that the association should give all possible help in money and workers.[43]

The public was much impressed at the last session by the appearance on the platform of four prominent politicians of the State representing the different parties and this was generally regarded as the opening of the campaign for woman suffrage. They were introduced by State Senator Henry Waldo Coe, M. D., who spoke in highest praise of homes and housekeepers as he had seen them in his practice and said: "The woman who takes an interest in the affairs of her country has the highest interest in her home, and the suffrage will not lessen her fitness as wife and mother." He introduced Mayor Harry Lane as the Democrat who carried a Republican city and who was the best mayor Portland ever had. Mr. Lane declared that women were as much entitled to the suffrage as men and that the enfranchisement of women would tend to purify politics. Dr. Andrew C. Smith, a Republican, was introduced as "the man who presented the names of thirteen women physicians to the State Medical Association and got them admitted." The press report said: "The prospective women voters were informed that they saw before them the next Governor of Oregon." Dr. Smith declared that he had been for woman suffrage twenty-five years and that "the United States was guilty of a national sin in not giving women equal rights." Thomas Burns, State Secretary of the Socialist party, asserted that it was the only one which had a plank for woman suffrage in its platform and the Socialists had fought for it all over the world. "Men have made a failure of government," he said, "now let the women try it." O. M. Jamison, of the Citizens' movement, said: "We have found women the strongest factor in our work for reform and I think 99 per cent. of us are for woman suffrage." B. Lee Paget, who spoke for the Prohibitionists, declared himself an old convert to woman suffrage and said: "I think intelligent women far better fitted to vote on public measures than the majority of men who take part in campaigns and are wholly ignorant of the issues."

L. F. Wilbur of Vermont told of its improved laws for women and advancing public sentiment for woman suffrage and paid a glowing tribute to the early work in that State of Lucy Stone, Mr. Blackwell and Julia Ward Howe. Mrs. Maud Wood Park, president of the Massachusetts College Women's Suffrage League, gave a scholarly address on The Civic Responsibility of Women, which she began by saying that the first "new woman" was from Boston—Anne Hutchinson. Dr. Marie D. Equi, candidate for inspector of markets, spoke briefly on the need of market inspection for which women were especially fitted. Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman (N. Y.) in discussing Woman's World said in part: "Ex-President Cleveland, after warning women against the clubs which are leading them straight to the abyss of suffrage, told us that 'the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.' ... Is it true? The Indian woman rocks the cradle; does she rule the world? The Chinese woman—the woman of the harem—do they rule it? An amiable old gentleman in opening a suffrage debate said: 'My wife rules me and if a woman can rule a man, why should she care to rule the country?' He seemed to think he was equal to the whole United States! Women have been taught that the home was their sphere and men have claimed everything else for themselves. The fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the world with the children of 20th century A. D. fathers and 20th century B. C. mothers."

Miss Blackwell lightened the proceedings with some of her clever anecdotes with a suffrage moral, and Mrs. Gilman with several of her brilliant poems. Mrs. Catt gave a concise review of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, formed at Berlin in 1904, and told of the progress of woman suffrage in other countries. Greetings to all of them were sent by the convention. Dr. Shaw gave an impressive peroration to this interesting session by pointing out the responsibility resting on the men and women of Oregon to carry to success the campaign which they had now begun, and Miss Anthony closed the convention with a fervent appeal to all to work for victory.

The delegates and visitors greatly enjoyed the Exposition, which had such a setting as none ever had before, looking out on the dazzling beauty of the snowclad peaks of Mt. Hood and the Olympic Range, and now they had to select from the many opportunities for travel and sight-seeing. The Rev. Mrs. Blackwell, Emily Howland, Mrs. Cartwright of Portland and others from seventy to eighty years of age, took a steamer for Alaska. Mr. and Miss Blackwell and others went to Seattle, Vancouver and home through the magnificent scenery of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Catt and another party returned east by way of the Yellowstone Park. Dr. Cora Smith Eaton with a few daring spirits went for a climb of Mt. Hood. Miss Anthony with a group of friends started southward, stopping at Chico, California, for her to dedicate a park of 2,000 acres, which Mrs. Annie K. Bidwell had presented to the village. They went on to San Francisco where they were joined by Dr. Shaw, who had remained in Portland for the Medical Convention and spoken at several places en route. Here they were beautifully entertained in the homes of the suffrage leaders, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Mrs. Ellen Clark Sargent, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Emma Shafter Howard and others, and mass meetings crowded to the doors were held in San Francisco and Oakland. From here they went to Los Angeles for other meetings, except Dr. Shaw, who started eastward for her round of Chautauqua engagements.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Part of Call: A government of men and women—not by women alone, not by men alone, but a government of men and women by men and women for men and women—this is the aim and ideal of our association.

One hundred years ago Oregon was an untrodden wilderness. The transformation of that primeval territory into prosperous communities enjoying the highest degree of civilization could not have been accomplished without the work of women. No restriction should be placed upon energies and abilities so potent for good. The extension of the right of suffrage would remove a handicap from the efforts of women and give them an opportunity to work for the welfare of the State. We do not claim that woman's voice in the government would at once sound the death knell to all social and political evils but we do believe that a government representing the interests and beliefs of women and men would prove itself, and is proving itself where it now exists, to be a better government than one which represents the interests and beliefs of men alone.

The movement for the enfranchisement of women is based upon the unchanging and unchangeable principles of human liberty, in accordance with which successive classes of men have won the right of self-government. On such a foundation ultimate victory is assured and in truth is conceded even by those who oppose. The day is ever drawing nearer when the nation will apply to women the principles which are the very foundation of its existence; when on every election day there will be re-affirmed the immortal truths of our Declaration of American Independence. Then will this indeed be a just government, "deriving its powers from the consent of the governed."

SUSAN B. ANTHONY, Honorary President. ANNA HOWARD SHAW, President. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, Vice-president. KATE M. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary. ALICE STONE BLACKWELL, Recording Secretary. HARRIET TAYLOR UPTON, Treasurer. LAURA CLAY, } CORA SMITH EATON, } Auditors.

[37] If this request was so "reasonable" why was the word "sex" included in the first place? Although it was omitted from the Act of Congress which admitted these Territories to Statehood under the names of Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, each one adopted a constitution whose suffrage clause absolutely barred women and those constitutions were approved by Congress. (See their special chapters.)

[38] In later years woman suffrage amendments were submitted to the voters through the Initiative and Referendum after the Legislature had refused to do it and were carried in Oregon and Arizona and defeated in Nebraska and Missouri. Still later by this method the ratification of the Federal Suffrage Amendment in Ohio by the Legislature was sent to the voters after they had defeated the ratification of the Prohibition Amendment. This was attempted in several other States and both prohibitionists and suffragists were in great distress, which was relieved by a decision of the U. S. Supreme Court that this action was unconstitutional. They learned, however, that the Initiative and Referendum has its harmful as well as its beneficial side.

[39] Miss Anthony and Mrs. Upton went to Washington in November, where Mrs. Harper joined them, and on the 15th President Roosevelt received them cordially and granted them a long interview. Miss Anthony was the principal spokesman and made these requests: 1. To mention woman suffrage in his speeches when practicable. 2. To put experienced women on boards and commissions relating to such matters as they would be competent to pass upon. 3. To recommend to Congress a special committee to investigate the practical working of woman suffrage where it exists. 4. To see that Congress should not discriminate against the women of the Philippines as it had done against those of Hawaii. 5. To say something that would help the approaching suffrage campaign in Oregon. 6. To speak to the national suffrage convention in Baltimore in February, as he did to the Mothers' Congress. 7. To recommend to Congress a Federal Suffrage Amendment before he left the presidency.

These requests were given to him in typewritten form but President Roosevelt did not comply with one of them and did not communicate further with the committee who called upon him. For full account of this occurrence see Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, page 1375.

[40] Different sessions were opened with prayer by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Father Black and the Reverends Elwin L. House, H. M. Barden, E. S. Muckley, J. Burgette Short, J. Whitcomb Brougher, E. Nelson Allen, Edgar P. Hill, W. S. Gilbert, A. A. Morrison, T. L. Eliot, Asa Sleeth, J. F. Ghormley, George Creswell Cressey, representing various denominations. Nearly all of them pledged their support to the suffrage movement. The fine musical programs throughout the convention were in charge of Mrs. M. A. Dalton.

[41] Oregon gave suffrage to women in 1912 and Mrs. Duniway received full recognition. See Oregon chapter.

[42] Mr. Blackwell, then 80 years old, used to rise early in the morning and take a trolley ride of thirty or forty miles in various directions to enjoy the beauties of nature. "Feeling unwilling to return east without bathing in the Pacific," he said in one of his letters, "and wishing to visit Astoria, the ancient American fur-post so charmingly immortalized by Washington Irving, I left Portland after the convention closed and had a beautiful voyage of nine hours down the river to where it meets the ocean.... After an early morning plunge into the big waves we chartered an auto and sped over the hard sands to the fir-crowned cliffs."

[43] For results the following year see Oregon chapter.



CHAPTER VI.

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1906.

The Thirty-eighth annual convention held in Baltimore Feb. 7-13, 1906, was notable in several respects. It had gone into the very heart of conservatism and a larger number of eminent men and women took part in its proceedings than had ever before been represented on a single program.[44] There were university presidents and professors, men and women; office holders, men and women; representatives of other large movements, men and women, and more distinguished women than had ever before assembled in one convention. It was especially memorable because of the presence on the platform together for the first and only time of the three great pioneers, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton and Julia Ward Howe, and never to be forgotten by suffragists as the last ever attended by Miss Anthony. Here was sung the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the presence of the woman who wrote it, Mrs. Howe; and the Star Spangled Banner in the home of its author, Francis Scott Key.

The meetings were held in the beautifully decorated Lyric Theater with appreciative and enthusiastic audiences. The arrangements had been made by the Maryland Suffrage Association and its president, Mrs. Emma Maddox Funck. Ministers of nearly all denominations asked blessings on the various sessions and the best musical talent in the city gave its services. The papers were most generous with space and fair and friendly in their reports. Through the influence and efforts of Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, the remarkable representation of Women's Colleges was secured. Baltimore's most prominent woman, Miss Mary E. Garrett, was largely responsible for the social prestige which is especially necessary to success in a southern city. It was a convention long to be remembered by those who were so fortunate as to be a part of it.

The convention opened on the afternoon of February 7 with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the association, in the chair and was welcomed by Mrs. Funck, who said in a graceful speech: "You have come to the conservative South. Conservative—what a sweet-sounding word, what an ark for the timid soul! So you must expect to find a good many folks who mean well but who have not discarded their silver buckles and ruffles, but nothing will more clearly indicate the development of our people from provincialism and bigotry than their generosity of spirit and kindly intent towards the gathering of our clans in this convention. Most people have come to realize that to be a great nation we must have that catholicity of spirit which embraces all ologies and all isms.... From the suffrage pioneers we have learned the lessons of fair play and equal rights."

Fraternal greetings were offered by Mrs. Albert L. Sioussat, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Hattie Hull Troupe, president of the Women's Twentieth Century Club of Baltimore; Mrs. Rosa H. Goldenberg, president of the Maryland section Jewish Council of Women, and Mrs. Mary R. Haslup, president of the Baltimore Woman's Christian Temperance Union. As the vice-president of the association, Dr. Annice Jeffreys Myers of Oregon, who was to respond, had been delayed en route. Dr. Shaw took her place, saying in answer to certain of the greetings: "In all my experience I have observed that those people are most likely to have their prayers answered who do everything they can to help God answer them; so while we may try by prayer to bring about the highest good not only in the State but in education and philanthropy, we hope to add to our prayers the citizen's power of the ballot.... We have never had a more generous welcome or a warmer hospitality offered to us and we thank you with all our heart. Whatever may happen while we are here, nothing can take away from us the beauty of the sunshine and the kindliness of your welcome."

The first evening session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John B. Van Meter, dean of the Woman's College, Baltimore, and music by a chorus of two hundred voices under the direction of William R. Hall. Governor Edwin Warfield made an eloquent address in which he said: "A man who would not extend a welcome to such a body of women would not be worthy the name of Maryland, which we consider a synonym of hospitality. Our doors are always wide open to friends and strangers, especially strangers. We are delighted to have you here. While I may not agree with all your teachings, I recognize one fact, that there never has been assembled in Baltimore a convention composed of women who have been more useful in this country and who have done more for the uplift of humanity. It was proper for you to come to Maryland, a State that was named for a woman, whose capital was named for a woman and whose motto is 'Manly deeds and womanly words.'" He paid glowing compliments to the splendid public service of Maryland women and said he would not have been elected Governor but for their kindly influence. He declared that he had been almost persuaded by the charming words of Mrs. Howe and said his wife was a "convert" and he "had been voting as a proxy for some time." He believed "the final solution of the question would be a referendum to the women themselves."

Dr. Shaw could not resist saying when she rose to introduce the next speaker: "So many have told us, as the Governor has, about being proxy-voters, that we think it is time they should be relieved of that role and have an opportunity to do their own voting while we women attend to ours." Mayor Timanus was indisposed and the welcome for the city was given by the Hon. William F. Stone, Collector of the Port. He vied with the Governor in the warmth of his greeting and his splendid tributes to women and acknowledged his indebtedness for "all that he was or expected to be to his sainted mother and beloved wife," but, like the Governor, he could not give his full sanction to woman suffrage. When he had finished Dr. Shaw said with her winning smile and melodious voice: "We have the testimony of Governor Warfield and of Collector Stone that the best each has been able to accomplish has been due to the influence of good women. Now if a good woman can develop the best in an individual man, may not all the good women together develop the best in a whole State? I am glad of this strong point in favor of enfranchising women."

Miss Anthony was to have presided at this meeting and in referring to her absence on account of illness Dr. Shaw said: "I am not taking Miss Anthony's place this evening—there is only one Susan B. Anthony, but it is also true that there is only one Clara Barton and but one Julia Ward Howe and these grand women we have with us." Miss Barton, who, in her soft plum-colored satin with fichu of white lace, her dark hair parted smoothly over her forehead, did not seem over sixty although she was eighty-four, was enthusiastically received and said in part: "What greater honor and what greater embarrassment than to be asked to take ever so small a step on a platform that Susan B. Anthony had expected to tread. As I stand here tonight my thoughts go back to the time when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Anthony were pioneers struggling for this righteous cause. I think the greatest reforms, the greatest progress ever made for any reforms in our country have been along the lines on which they worked. Miss Anthony's has been a long life. She has trod the thorny way, has walked through briars with bleeding feet, but it is through a sweet and lovely way now and the hearts of the whole country are with her. A few days ago some one said to me that every woman should stand with bared head before Susan B. Anthony. 'Yes,' I answered, 'and every man as well.' I would not retract these words. I believe that man has benefited by her work as much as woman. For ages he has been trying to carry the burden of life's responsibilities alone and when he has the efficient help of woman he will be grateful. Just now it is new and strange and men cannot comprehend what it would mean but the change is not far away. The nation is soon to have woman suffrage and it will be a glad and proud day when it comes."

Mrs. Howe in the dignity of her eighty-seven years made a lovely picture in a gown of mauve satin with a creamy lace scarf draped about her head and shoulders. She was escorted to the front of the platform by the Governor and said in her brief response: "Madam president and you dear suffrage friends, and the rest of you who are going to become suffrage friends before we leave this city, I give you thanks for this friendly greeting. I am very, very glad to meet you all. I am not going to preach a sermon but I have a text from the New Testament, a question that the Lord asked when the crowd came to see him, 'What came ye out to see? A reed shaken with the wind?' No, it was a prophet that they came to see and hear. When you come to these suffrage meetings you do not come to see reeds shaken by the wind. We do not any of us claim to be prophets but you do come to hear a prophecy, a very glad prophecy which some of us have believed in and followed for years, and all the way of that following has been joyous and bright though it has not been popular. I remember many years ago going with Mrs. Livermore and Lucy Stone to a meeting in New England and the report was sent out that 'three old crows were coming to disturb the town with their croakings.' I can never forget that evening. When Mary Livermore looked the audience over in her calm and dignified manner they quieted down as if by magic. When reasonable measures are proposed in a reasonable way there are always some people who will respond and be convinced. We have no desire to put out of sight the difficulties of government. When we talk about woman suffrage people begin to remember how unsatisfactory manhood suffrage is, but I should like to see what men would do if there was an attempt to take it away. We might much improve it by bringing to it the feminine mind, which in a way complements the masculine. I frankly believe that we have half the intelligence and good sense of humanity and that it is quite time we should express not only our sentiments but our determined will to set our faces toward justice and right and to follow these through the thorny wilderness if necessary—follow them straight, not to the 'bitter end,' for it will not be bitter but very sweet and I hope it will come before my end comes."

For the second time Dr. Shaw had written her president's address but although it was a statesmanlike document the audience missed the spontaneity, the sparkle of wit, the flashes of eloquence that distinguished her oratory above that of all others, and there was a general demand that hereafter she should give them the spoken instead of the written word. She complied and while it was a gain to the audiences of her day and generation it was a great loss to posterity. Even extended quotations can give little idea of this address which filled over ten columns of the Woman's Journal.

For the first time in the history of our association we meet to protest against the disenfranchisement of women in a State in which the first public demand for a part in the conduct of our government was made by a woman. It was in an impassioned appeal to your Assembly, that in 1647 Mistress Margaret Brent demanded "a part and voyce" as representative of the estate of her kinsman, Lord Baltimore, whose name your city bears. Here Mary Catherine Goddard published Baltimore's only newspaper through all the severe struggle of the Revolutionary War, and it is stated upon good authority that when Congress, then in session in Baltimore, sent out the official Declaration of Independence, with the names of the signers attached, it was published by official order in Miss Goddard's paper; that her name was on the sheet which was officially circulated throughout the country; but, although a memorial sheet was afterwards placed in the Court House, Miss Goddard's name was not left on it. This omission is but one of many evidences that in the compilation of the world's historic events it has been customary to overlook the part performed by women.

Dr. Shaw took up the section on Labor in President Roosevelt's recent message to Congress in which he recommended a thorough investigation of the condition of women in industry, saying: "There is an almost complete dearth of data on which to base any trustworthy conclusions," and then drawing this one: "The introduction of women into industry is working change and disturbance in the domestic and social life of the nation; the decrease in marriage and especially in the birth-rate have been coincident with it." Dr. Shaw's comment was in part:

This is unquestionably true but it is also true that this has been coincident with the wider discovery of gold and the application of steam and electricity to mechanics ... and to draw sweeping and universal conclusions in regard to a matter upon which there is an "almost complete dearth of data" is never wise. Is it true that there is a lower birth-rate among working women than among those of the wealthy class? Are not the effects of over-work and long hours in the household as great as are those of the factory or the office? Is the birth-rate less among women who are engaged in the occupations unknown to women of the past? Or is the decline alike marked among those who are pursuing the ancient occupations but under different conditions?... If conditions surrounding their employment are such as to make it a "social question of the first importance" it is unfortunate the President had not seen that women should constitute at least a part of any commission authorized to investigate it.

One can not but wish that with his expressed desire for "fair play" and his policy of "a square deal" it had occurred to the President that, if five million American women are employed in gainful occupations, every principle of justice would demand that they should be enfranchised to enable them to secure legislation for their own protection. In all governments a subject class is always at a disadvantage and at the mercy of the ruling class. It matters not whether its name be Empire, Kingdom or Republic, whether the rulers are one or many; and in a democracy there is no way known for any class to protect its interests or to be secure in its most sacred rights except through the power of the ballot....

There had been about this time in high places an outburst of attacks on woman suffrage and predictions as to its dangerous possibilities. Dr. Shaw referred to their authors as Oracles and said: "The great difficulty is that when one Oracle claiming to be divinely inspired has laid down a specific line of conduct which if implicitly followed would lead to the proper development of woman, the happiness of man, the good of the family and the well-being of the State, another Oracle also divinely enlightened lays out a different path by which these ends may be secured, and then another and another until poor women if they should try to follow these self-appointed divine revealers would not only have to be hydra-headed to see these devious paths but hydra-footed to walk in them." Referring to Cardinal Gibbons, she said:

The Oracle of Baltimore tells us that the education and culture of women are good up to a certain point, no further, but he sagely fails to define the point, simply declaring that "too much education of the head is apt to cool the heart; the cultivation of the soul is too much neglected in the higher education; the head and the heart and the body should all be educated together; then they develop equally." There certainly can be no disagreement among us as to the latter statement but why is it more applicable to women than to men? The Oracle does not leave us in doubt as to his view, for in response to the question, "What do you think of the societies and club organizations which attract women so largely just now?" he replies: "A society like the Daughters of the American Revolution I heartily approve of, for it tends to foster patriotism and keep it alive, but other clubs of all kinds for women I strictly disapprove of."

The Oracle of Princeton, ex-President Cleveland, who has gained the most notoriety for his heavy diatribes against women's clubs, also admits that there are a few societies which it might be well for women to encourage and keep alive—religious organizations and those which administer to the needs of the heathen in a foreign land. The Oracle of Brooklyn, Dr. Lyman Abbott, adds a few more to the list and includes philanthropic, reform and social clubs. Would it be unwomanly to ask why there should have been such wide divergence in the Divine Illumination which each Oracle received?

Dr. Shaw quoted from Mr. Roosevelt: "The President of the United States does not absent himself from the country during the term of his presidency, it is his domain. So should it be with woman; she is queen of her empire and that empire is the home," and after reminding him that the President's term lasts but four or eight years she asked: "What do men mean by saying that women should remain contentedly in their homes? They do not intend us to understand that we are never to leave them, for they are frequently calling us forth when conditions become so intolerable that even men can no longer endure them. Then they call upon women to come out from the seclusion and protection of their homes and aid them to 'save the city and the State.'" She pointed out the difference between the time when the home was "a protective and industrial center" and now when "the results of electricity and steam have scattered the households," but in picturing the advance that women had made in their own domain she said: "There never was a time when there was as large a number of good housekeepers and homemakers; when there was as much intelligence shown in the scientific preparation of food; such knowledge of household sanitation; such reverence for individual life; such painstaking study of the needs and rights of childhood; when there was so much thought given to the development of the finer and more permanent qualities of character; when such good comradeship existed between children and their parents; when marriage had so deep a spiritual and human meaning as at the present time. The home ideal of today is the best the world has yet known and it will continue to develop as larger freedom and broader culture come to all who share in its life...."

The manner in which politics enters the modern home was pointed out and the contempt which was shown for the political opinions of women and then in a rousing appeal to women the speaker said: "A few days since I was asked by a compiler of other people's thoughts to express for him my opinion of the greatest need of American women and I replied, 'self-respect.' ... The assumption that woman have neither discernment nor judgment and that any man is superior in all the qualities that make for strength, stability and sanity to any woman, simply because he is a man and she is a woman, is still altogether too common. The time has come when women must question themselves to learn how far they are personally responsible for this almost universal disrespect and then set about changing it."

Dr. Shaw told of the organization of the College Women's Equal Suffrage League and asked: "Who can compute the loss sustained by our country every year by the addition of unrestricted, ignorant and often criminal male voters and the exclusion of the vast number of college and high-school graduates through the disfranchisement of women? If the stability of a government depends upon the morality and intelligence of its voting citizens, how long can the foundations of ours remain secure if we continue to enfranchise ignorance and vice and disfranchise intelligence and virtue?" The action of Legislatures in past years was depicted as "playing shuttlecock and battledore with the amendment, passing it in one House to defeat it in another, in a hypocritical desire to appear favorable and inspire us with hope in order to retain the small amount of influence they think we possess, and yet compelling us to begin the work all over again." After reviewing the long struggle of American women for political freedom she ended with an impassioned peroration of which only a portion can be quoted:

No class of men in any nation have ever been compelled to wage such an arduous and difficult struggle for their political freedom. Through the influence of the Democratic party, without an effort on their own behalf, white working men were enfranchised; and by an Act of Congress under Republican leadership the newly emancipated men slaves were protected in their right of suffrage. The same Act placed in the Constitution of the United States for the first time the word "male," which robbed women of the protection guaranteed to every other class of citizens in the most sacred right of citizenship—the right to a voice in the Government.

Such is the boasted chivalry of the Land of Freedom, which has left its women to strive against tradition, prejudice, conservatism, self-interest, political power and in addition all the forces of corruption combined, to secure the privilege which was conferred upon vast numbers of men who never even demanded it and many of whom knew nothing of its significance after it was granted. I claim, and fear no contradiction, that the women of this land are better qualified to exercise the suffrage with intelligence, honesty and patriotism than were any other class of citizens in the world at the time when it was conferred upon them.

Must women, unaided, continue the struggle for forty years longer until they have rounded out a century, assailing the bulwarks of prohibitive constitutions in the forty-one States yet to be won? Or will not some brave, consistent and freedom-loving President, recognizing the duty the Government owes to the disfranchised millions of patriotic women, recommend to Congress to submit an amendment to the Federal Constitution forbidding disfranchisement on account of sex? And will not the time speedily come when Congress, recognizing the great injustice which was inflicted upon the women of the land when by enfranchising a race of slave men they riveted the fetters of disfranchisement upon educated and patriotic women, redeem the nation from this stigma? It was the most ungrateful and unjust act ever perpetrated by a republic upon a class of citizens who had worked and sacrificed and suffered as did the women of this nation in the struggle of the Civil War only to be rewarded at its close by such unspeakable degradation as to be reduced to the plane of subjects to enfranchised slaves....