History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 6/Chapter 54

 

CHAPTER LIV.

THE INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE.

An international association of the groups of women in various countries who were working to obtain the suffrage was for many years the strong desire of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B. Anthony, two leaders of the movement in the United States. When, however, in the early eighties the first steps were taken they found that Great Britain was the only one with organizations for this purpose. They visited there in 1883-4 and found so much sympathy with the idea that a committee was appointed to cooperate with one in the United States in arranging for an International Woman Suffrage Association.^[1] It was decided as a first step to hold an International Suffrage Convention but after a correspondence which extended through several years, because of the difficulty of getting in touch with women in the different countries who were interested, it was considered advisable to broaden the scope of the undertaking and call an International Congress of Women engaged in all kinds of work for the general welfare. This was held in Washington, D. C., in March, 1888, under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association and was the largest convention of women which had ever taken place up to that time. It resulted in a permanent International Council of Women, which in a few years established a Standing Committee on Suffrage and Rights of Citizenship with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as chairman. The National Councils in all countries formed auxiliary committees and made woman suffrage a part of their program and it had a prominent place at the National and International Congresses. The woman suffrage leaders in the United States did not abandon the idea of an affiliation of the societies which were forming in many lands for the specific purpose of obtaining the franchise but no further steps toward it were taken.

From the time Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became officially connected with the National Association in 1905 a dominant thought with her was that there should be an international suffrage association. Miss Anthony resigned the presidency in 1900 and Mrs. Catt became her successor. She presented her idea to Miss Anthony, who told her of the early efforts and encouraged her to apply her great organizing ability to the undertaking, feeling that she was fitted for it above all others. Mrs. Catt at once began the preliminary work and after two years of correspondence the officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association issued an invitation for an International Conference to be held in Washington, D. C., at the time of its annual convention in February, 1902. This conference took place and was attended by delegates from many countries. A part of their interesting and valuable addresses before the convention and committees of Congress will be found in Chapter II of Volume V. The official proceedings of the conference are condensed from the Minutes as follows:

Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, called the meeting to order and gave a brief history of the correspondence conducted with the officers of women's associations of various kinds concerning an International Woman Suffrage Conference. She reported that ten countries would be represented by delegates—England, Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Chile and the United States. She expressed regret that unforseen circumstances at the last moment prevented the attendance of the Canadian delegation but stated that James L. Hughes, Inspector of Public Schools in Toronto, would attend and report on the position of women in Canada.

The United States association had appointed four delegates and it had been hoped that each country would send four but no country had sent more than one. The meeting was asked to select a chairman and on motion of Mrs. Fenwick Miller, seconded by Mrs. Drewson, Miss Susan B. Anthony was unanimously chosen and took the chair. Miss Vida Goldstein was elected recording secretary.

The following delegates responded to the roll call: Mrs. Florence Miller, England; Miss Vida Goldstein, Australia; Mrs. Sofja Levovna Friedland, Russia; Mrs. Gudrun Drewson, Norway; Miss Florence Fensham, Turkey; Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, United States. Mrs. Catt announced that a delegate from Germany, Miss Antonie Stolle; one from Chile, Miss Carolina Huidobro, and one from Sweden, Mrs. Emmy Kvald, would arrive later. A committee of five was appointed to consider a plan for international cooperation Mrs. Miller, Mrs. A very. Miss Stolle, Mrs. Drewson, Miss Goldstein. At another session its recommendations were read and adopted as follows:

1. That it is desirable to form an International Woman Suffrage Committee for the purpose of acting as a central bureau for the collection, exchange and dissemination of information concerning the methods of suffrage work and the general status of women in the various countries having representation on the committee.

2. That the delegates to the conference be instructed to ask their respective societies to appoint three representatives to act on such a committee.

3. That in the event of societies declining to cooperate, the delegates be authorized to form a separate International Committee in their respective countries.

4. That the secretary of the International Committee be instructed to communicate with known suffragists in countries not represented in this conference and to recommend cooperation with the international organization....

The delegates were unanimously of the opinion that the above temporary form of organization would result in most satisfactory international cooperation. It was held that each nation should be given free opportunity to aid in the forming of the permanent organization and that the present needs would be best served by a temporary International Committee.

It was agreed that the next International Woman Suffrage Conference should be called in Berlin in 1904, in connection with the Quinquennial Meeting of the International Council of Women, and that meantime each nation should be asked to consider this movement and send delegates fully instructed as to the best form of a permanent international organization.

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.

The object of the Alliance was declared to be "to secure the enfranchisement of the women of all nations and to unite the friends of woman suffrage throughout the world in organized cooperation and fraternal helpfulness," and a constitution was adopted. The roll of nations was called and the delegates from Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and the United States pledged affiliation. Mrs. Catt made the pledge for Australia. Delegates from Denmark and Norway asked for time to present the matter to their associations and a little later became auxiliaries. All the suffrage associations in existence that could be called national except that of Canada—eight altogether— joined the Alliance. Mesdames Minna Cauer, Germany; Agda Montelius, Sweden; Charlotte Norrie, Denmark; Mrs. Blankenburg, Dr. Jacobs and Miss Palliser were appointed to consider designs for an international badge.

Miss Anthony announced that as she had reached the age of 84 she could not stand as candidate for the presidency and it was unanimously voted that she be made honorary president. The following officers were elected: President, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, New York; first vice-president, Dr. jur. Anita Augspurg, Hamburg; second vice-president, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, London; secretary, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, Philadelphia; first assistant secretary, Dr. Käthe Schirmacher, Paris (address temporarily); second, Miss Johanna A. W. Naber, Amsterdam; treasurer, Miss Rodger Cunliffe, London. (Later Miss Naber resigned and Miss Martina G. Kramers of Rotterdam was appointed.)

The Executive Committee of the new Alliance met June 6 at the Palast Hotel. It was arranged that fifty copies of the Declaration of Principles, the Constitution and the Minutes be typed in Berlin and sent to the presidents of the affiliated societies and the honorary associates. It was decided to postpone application for auxiliaryship to the International Council of Women for at least two years. Correspondence with the countries requiring special information was assigned as follows: "To Mrs. Catt, Australia; to Dr. Augspurg, Norway and Austria; to Dr. Schirmacher, Italy and France; to Miss Naber, Switzerland and Belgium. It was decided that the Alliance should meet every five years for the election of officers, revision of the constitution, etc., but that during this period executive meetings and congresses might be held.^[2]

 

THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE ALLIANCE.

The first Executive Meeting and Third Conference of the Alliance was held at Copenhagen Aug. 7-11, 1906, in the Concert Palais, in response to a Call from the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, and secretary, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, to the affiliated National Woman Suffrage Associations, which said:

An especial invitation to send fraternal delegates is extended to all societies known to be in sympathy with our movement. Individuals of whatever race, nativity or creed, who believe in the right of the woman citizen to protect her interests in society by the ballot, are invited to be present. The enfranchisement of women is emphatically a world movement. The unanswerable logic upon which the movement is based and the opposition which everywhere appears to combat that logic with its array of traditions and prejudices are the same in all lands. The evolution of the movement must proceed along the same lines among all peoples. In union there is strength. Let international cooperation, organization and work be our watchwords.

Two years of careful preparation, extended correspondence and close attention to endless details by the president and officers of the Alliance had brought to Copenhagen a congress of women prepared to inaugurate a world movement for woman suffrage. Excellent arrangements had been made by the Danish Association through four committees: Finance, Miss Eline Hansen; Information, Miss Julie Laurberg; Press, Miss Sophie Alberti; Entertainment, Mrs. Johanne Münter. The music was in charge of Miss Bernberg. The entire expenses of the convention, rent of hall, handsome decorations, silk badges, etc., were met by the finance committee. The elaborate souvenir programs contained many views of the city which were made by Miss Laurberg’s camera. The remarkable work of the press before and during the congress was due to Miss Alberti's judicious and skilful management. 'The entertainments under the capable direction of Mrs. Münter included a beautiful dinner given by a committee of Danish ladies at the famous pleasure resort Marienlyst; a reception by the directors at Rosenberg Castle; an afternoon tea by the officers of the widely-known Women's Reading Club of 3,200 members, of which Miss Alberti, a founder, was the president; a reception and banquet by the Municipal Council in the magnificent City Hall and a farewell supper by the Danish Suffrage Association at Skydebanen, preceded by an interesting program of recitations and costume dances. There were many private dinners, luncheons and excursions to the beautiful and historic environs.

Two more national suffrage associations had united with the Alliance—those of Hungary and Canada. Australia was ready to enter. France had sent a delegate, Madame Maria Martin, and expected to form a national association within a year, Professor Teresa Labriola was present to promise the affiliation of Italy in another year. Six highly educated, progressive delegates from Russia represented the Union of Defenders of Woman's Rights, composed of 79 societies and 10,000 members, which applied for auxiliaryship. Fraternal delegates were present from the International Council of Women and the National Councils of Norway, Sweden, France, the United States and Australia; from the International Council of Nurses and from organizations of women in Finland and Iceland. Telegrams of greeting were received from societies and individuals in twenty-five different cities of Europe. About one hundred delegates and alternates from twelve countries were present.

Several sessions were filled to overflowing with these greetings and the reports from the various countries of the progress made by women in the contest for their civil, legal and political rights. As published in the Minutes, filling 55 pages, these reports formed a remarkable and significant chapter in the world's history. Mrs. Catt was in the chair on the first afternoon and a cordial welcome was extended by the presidents of five Danish organizations of women: Miss Alberti, Mrs. Louise Hansen, Mrs. Louise Norlund, Mrs. Jutta Bojsen Moller and Miss Henni Forchhammer for the National Council of Women. Dr. jur. Anita Augspurg of Germany, the first vice-president, responded for the Alliance. She was followed by Mrs. Catt, who, in her president’s address, after describing in full the forming of the Alliance, gave a comprehensive report of the progress toward organizing suffrage associations in the various countries during the past two years and the growth and future prospects of the international movement. She touched a responsive chord in every heart when she said :

Since we last met our cause has sustained a signal loss in the death of our honorary president, Susan B. Anthony. She has been the inspirer of our movement in many lands and we may justly say that her labors belonged to all the world. She passed in the ripeness of years and with a life behind her which counted not a wasted moment nor a selfish thought. When one thinks of her it must be with the belief that she was born and lived to perform an especial mission. All who knew her well mourn her and long will they miss her wise counsel, her hearty cheerfulness and her splendid optimism. There has been no important national suffrage meeting in the United States for half a century and no international meeting of significance at any time in which she has not been a conspicuous figure. This is the first to meet without her. We must hope that her spirit will be with us and inspire our deliberations with the same lofty purpose and noble energy which governed all her labors.

Mrs. Catt reviewed the movement for woman suffrage, declaring that the most ambitious should be satisfied with the general progress, and said in conclusion:

We have been like an army climbing slowly and laboriously up a steep and rocky mountain. We have looked upward and have seen uncertain stretches of time and effort between us and the longed for summit. We have not been discouraged for behind us lay fifty years of marvelous achievement. We have known that we should reach that goal but we have also known that there was no way to do it but to plod on patiently, step by step. Yet suddenly, almost without warning, we see upon that summit another army. How came it there? It has neither descended from heaven nor made the long, hard journey, yet there above us all the women of Finland stand today. Each wears the royal crown of the sovereignty of the self-governing citizen. Two years ago these women would not have been permitted by the law to organize a woman suffrage association. A year later they did organize a woman suffrage committee and before it is yet a year old its work is done! The act giving full suffrage and eligibility to all offices has been bestowed upon them by the four Chambers of Parliament and the Czar has approved the measure! Metaphorically a glad shout of joy has gone up from the whole body of suffragists the world over.

Mrs. Catt presided at every public and every business meeting and hers was the guiding spirit and the controlling hand. By her ability and fairness she won the entire confidence of the delegates from twelve countries and launched successfully this organization which many had believed impossible because of the differences in language, temperament and methods.

Throughout the meetings twenty-minute addresses were made by prominent women of the different countries, some of them reports of the organized work, others on subjects of special interest to women, among them The Ideal Woman, Miss Eline Hansen; What Woman Suffrage Is Not, Dr. Schirmacher; Women Jurors of Norway, Miss Morck; Woman’s Horizon, Mrs. Flora MacDonald Denison, Canada; The Silent Foe, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw; What Are Women to Do?, Dr. Jacobs; Our Victory, Miss Annie Furuhjelm, Finland; Why the Working Woman Needs the Ballot, Mrs. Andrea Brachmann, Denmark; Why the Women of Australia Asked for and Received the Suffrage, sent by Miss Vida Goldstein and read by Mrs. Madge Donohoe.

Others besides the officers and those above mentioned who spoke during the convention were Cand. phil. Helena Berg, Elizabeth Grundtvig, Stampe Fedderson, Denmark; Briet Asmundsson, Iceland; Mrs. F. M. Qvam, Cand. phil. Mathilde Eriksen, Gina Krog and Mrs. L. Keilhau, Norway; Dr. Ellen Sandelin, Anna Whitlock, Gertrud Adelborg, Huldah Lundin, Ann Margret Holmgren, Frigga Carlberg, Anna B. Wicksell, and Jenny Wallerstedt, Sweden; Baroness Gripenberg, Dr. Meikki Friberg, Finland; Zeniede Mirovitch, Elizabeth Goncharow, Olga Wolkenstein, Anne Kalmanovitch, Russia; Rosika Schwimmer, Vilma Glicklich, Bertha Engel, Hungary; Lida Gustave Heymann, Adelheid von Welczeck, Regina Ruben, Germany; Mrs. Rutgers Hoitsema, Mrs. van Loenen de Bordes, Netherlands; Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Lady Steel, Dora Montefiore, Mrs. Broadley Reid, Great Britain; Miss Lucy E. Anthony, United States; Mrs. Henry Dobson, Australia.

One afternoon session was devoted to memorial services for Miss Anthony, with the principal address by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, her biographer, and beautiful tributes by delegates of seven European countries and Canada expressing the debt of gratitude which all women owed to the great pioneer. Mrs. Harper briefly sketched the subordinate position of women when Miss Anthony began her great work for their emancipation in 1851; told of her efforts for temperance and the abolition of slavery; her part in forming the International Council of Women; her publication of the History of Woman Suffrage and the many other activities of her long life. She described the advanced position of women at present and closed by saying:

No one who makes a careful study of the great movement for the emancipation of woman can fail to recognize in Miss Anthony its supreme leader. After her death last March more than a thousand editorials appeared in the principal newspapers of the country and practically every one of them accorded her this distinction. She was the only one who gave to this cause her whole life, consecrating to its service every hour of her time and every power of her being. Other women did what they could; came into the work for awhile and dropped out; had the divided interests of family and social relations; turned their attention to reforms which promised speedier rewards; surrendered to the forces of persecution. With Miss Anthony the cause of woman took the place of husband, children, society; it was her work and her relaxation, her politics and her religion. "I know only woman and her disfranchised," was her creed.... May we, her daughters, receive as a blessed inheritance something of her indomitable will, splendid courage, limitless patience, perseverance, optimism, faith!

Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with an eloquent unwritten peroration which told of her last hours with Miss Anthony as the great soul was about to take its flight and ended: "The object of her life was to awaken in women the consciousness of the need of freedom and the courage to demand it, not as an end but as a means of creating higher ideals for, humanity."

A resolution was adopted rejoicing in the granting of full suffrage and eligibility to sit in the Parliament to the women of Finland the preceding May. The delegates from Norway received a message from the Prime Minister that it was the intention of the Parliament to enlarge the Municipal franchise which women had possessed since 1901.

Designs for a permanent badge were submitted by several countries and the majority vote was in favor of the one designed by Mrs. Pedersen-Dan of Denmark, the figure of a woman holding the scales of justice with a rising sun in the background and the Latin words Jus Suffragii. It was decided to publish a monthly paper under the name of Jus Suffragii and in the English language. Afterwards Miss Martina G. Kramers was appointed editor and the paper was issued from Rotterdam. The invitation was accepted to hold an executive meeting and conference in Amsterdam in 1908, as a new constitution was about to be made for The Netherlands and there would be a strong effort to have it include woman suffrage.

Mrs. Catt's closing words to the delegates were to encourage agitation, education and organization in their countries. "The enfranchisement of women is as certain to come as the sun is sure to rise tomorrow," she said. "The time must depend on political conditions and the energy and intelligence with which our movement is conducted." Thus ended happily and auspiciously the first Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.

 

FOURTH CONFERENCE OF THE ALLIANCE.

The Executive Meeting and Fourth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was held in Amsterdam, June 15-20, 1908, in the spacious and handsome Concert Hall, in response to the Call of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president, and Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, secretary. No one who was present can ever forget this meeting in the most fascinating of countries, with every detail of its six days' sessions carefully planned and nothing left undone for the comfort and entertainment of the visitors who had come from most of the countries of Europe, from Canada, the United States and far-away Australia and New Zealand. The following account is condensed from the very full report of the recording secretary, Miss Martina. G. Kramers:

The arrangements for the congress were made by a Central Committee, of which Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, the organization which had invited the Alliance to Amsterdam, was chairman. Mrs. W. Drucker was chairman of the Finance Committee, Mrs. Van Buuren Huys, secretary, and Miss Rosa Manus gave much assistance. The Press Committee, Miss Johanna W. A. Naber, chairman, did excellent work in conjunction with a committee from the Amsterdam press association.... That the accounts throughout the world were so complete is due to this painstaking, able committee's assistance to the correspondents from far and wide.

The Committee on Local Arrangements, Mrs. van Loenen de Bordes, chairman, performed well many duties, issued a dainty booklet, bound in green and gold, which contained the program interspersed with views of Amsterdam, and provided handsome silk flags to mark the seats of each delegation, which were presented to the Alliance. A Bureau of Information was presided over by young women who were able to answer all questions in many languages. The back of the great stage was draped with the flags of the twenty nations represented, those of Norway, Finland and Australia being conspicuously placed in the center, that especial honor might be done the full suffrage countries. The front of the stage was a mass of flowers and plants, a magnificent bust of Queen Wilhelmina occupying a conspicuous place.

The Committee on Reception, chairman, Mrs. Gompertz Jitta, and that on Entertainments, chairman, Mrs. Schoffer-Bunge, provided many pleasures. Chief among these was the musical reception on the first afternoon. A grand welcome song with a military band playing the accompaniment was sung by four hundred voices; a variety of children's songs followed and the program was closed by a cantata called Old Holland's New Time, which had been prepared especially for the congress. All the music had been composed by Catherine Van Rennes, who was also the conductor. The congress opened with a large reception given by the Dutch Women's Suffrage Association at Maison Couturier, with a greeting by Mrs. Gompertz-Jitta. It had as a unique feature a little play written by Betsy van der Starp of The Hague. The gods and goddesses with much feeling discussed the appeal of Woman, who had asked their help in her effort to secure more rights on Earth.... On Tuesday afternoon a reception was given by Burgomaster and Mrs. van Leeuwen at their beautiful home, where refreshments were served in a shaded garden and the hospitable and democratic freedom was greatly enjoyed. On the same afternoon the Amsterdam branch of the National Association took the foreign visitors for a delightful excursion on the Amstel River. On Wednesday afternoon Dr. Jacobs had a most enjoyable tea in the Pavilloen van het Vondelpark. Mrs. Gompertz-Jitta opened her own luxurious home for tea on Friday. <A house filled with a rare art collection, a fine garden and a charming hostess gave an afternoon long to be remembered. A farewell dinner on Saturday night was held in the great Concert Hall. A gay assembly, a good dinner, the national airs of all countries played by a fine band, furnished abundant enjoyment and aroused enthusiasm to the utmost. The climax came when a band of young men and women, dressed in the quaint and picturesque costumes of the Dutch peasantry, to rollicking music executed several peasant dances on the platform and around the big room.

The day following at an early hour several car loads of suffragists set forth for Rotterdam and near the station two steamers took their cargo of happy people for a trip on the River Maas. They went as far as Dordrecht, where opportunity was given to see this quaint town. Luncheon had been served on the steamers and at Rotterdam the guests proceeded to the Zoological Garden, which many people pronounce the finest in the world. At 6:30 dinner was served in a large, fine restaurant, followed by animated speeches until train time. It had been a rare day, full of interest, for which the Congress was indebted to the Rotterdam branch of the National Association and to Mrs. van den Bergh-Willing, who supplied one of the steamers and invited over a hundred of the delegates as her guests for the day. The next day was spent under the direction of 'The Hague branch. An afternoon tea with music was given at the Palace Hotel, Scheveningen, the famous seaside resort, and later a dinner was served at the Kurhaus, followed by a fine concert arranged in honor of the guests. Later came a special display of fireworks with a closing piece which triumphantly flashed the words "Jus Suffragii" across the sky.

Mrs. Catt was in the chair at the first afternoon session and Dr. Jacobs welcomed the conference in an address given in perfect English during which she said: "When so strong and energetic a body of earnest women meets to deliberate on this greatest of modern world problems the impression can not fail to be a powerful one, for the vision must arise of the beauty and glory of future womanhood, of women who have obtained proper place and power in the community, which shall enable them to infuse their love, their moral perceptions, their sense of justice into the governments of the world. We believe the moment has now come to show our country the seriousness and extent of our movement and its determination to gain political equality for women in every civilized land. With the greatest appreciation we see among our visitors many high officials, who have not hesitated to answer our invitation favorably and to give us through their presence a proof of sympathy with the work we do. We wish to welcome these gentlemen first of all." Naming one country after another Dr. Jacobs mentioned the particular achievement of each during the past two years and extended a special welcome, saying: "May your presence here contribute to augment the public interest in the movement for women's enfranchisement in our country."

The address of the international president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, was a masterly effort and should be reproduced in full. In beginning it she referred to the suggestive coincidence that the opening day of the Congress commemorated the anniversary of the signing of the immortal Magna Charta and said: "At no time since the movement for the enfranchisement of women began have its advocates had so much cause for self-congratulation as now. The Alliance met in Copenhagen twenty-two months ago and in the brief time since then the progress of our cause has been so rapid, the gains so substantial, the assurance of coming victory so certain that we may imagine the noble and brave pioneers of woman suffrage, the men and women who were the torch-bearers of our movement, gathering today in some far-off celestial sphere and singing together a glad pæn of exultation." Mrs. Catt referred to the granting of full suffrage and eligibility to women by Norway in 1907 and continued:

Within the past two years appeals for woman suffrage have been presented to the Parliaments of eighteen European governments; the United States Congress and the Legislatures of twenty-nine States: the Parliaments of Canada and Victoria and the Legislature of the Philippines—fifty-one independent legislative bodies. The appeals were made for the first time, I believe, in twelve of the European countries. In Spain and the Philippines bills were introduced by friends of the cause quite unknown to national or international officers. This activity has not been barren of results and the delegates of six countries come to this congress vested with larger political rights than they possessed at the time of the Copenhagen meeting, namely, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, England and Germany. Each of the five Scandinavian lands has won something. Norwegian women come with full suffrage rights; Finnish delegates come as representatives of the only nation which has elected women to seats in its Parliament; Sweden and Iceland have gained a step in eligibility and our Icelandic delegate of two years ago is now a member of the city council of Reykjavik, the capital. The women of Denmark, next to those of Norway, have made the largest gain, as Municipal suffrage with liberal qualifications has been bestowed upon them. English women have secured eligibility to become Mayors and members of town and county councils, Germany has revised its law and women are now free to join political associations and to organize woman suffrage societies. The German association affiliated with the Alliance is now a federation of State bodies. In Sweden within two years the membership in the organization has doubled and the 63 local organizations reported at Copenhagen have become 127. A petition of 142,128 names has been presented to Parliament; deputations have waited upon the Government and been granted hearings.

A thorough analysis was made of the present status of woman suffrage throughout the world and in summing up the speaker said: "Although from Occident to Orient, from Lapland to sunny Italy and from Canada to South Africa the agitation for woman suffrage has known no pause, yet, after all, the storm center of the movement has been located in England. In other lands there have been steps in evolution; in England there has been a revolution. There have been no guns nor powder nor bloodshed but there have been all other evidences of war.... Yet the older and more conservative body of workers have been no less remarkable. With a forbearance we may all do well to imitate, they quadrupled their own activities. Every class, including ladies of the nobility, working girls, housewives and professional women, has engaged in the campaign and not a man, woman or child has been permitted to plead ignorance concerning the meaning of woman suffrage."

Mrs. Catt reviewed at length the "militant" movement in Great Britain, showing how it had awakened interest in votes for women in all quarters of the globe, and recalled the struggle of the barons in wresting the Magna Charta from King John. She then passed to the United States and to the persistent charge that its experiment in universal male suffrage had been a failure, to which she replied: "Although the United States has gathered a population which represents every race; although among its people are the followers of every religion and the subjects of every form of government; although there has been the dead weight of a large ignorant vote, yet the little settlement, which 150 years ago rested upon the eastern shores of the Atlantic a mere colonial possession, has steadily climbed upward until today it occupies a proud position of equality among the greatest governments of the world.... The fact that woman suffrage must come through a referendum to the votes of all men has postponed it but man suffrage in the United States is as firmly fixed as the Rock of Gibraltar...."

In an eloquent peroration Mrs. Catt said: "Within our Alliance we must try to develop so lofty a spirit of internationalism, a spirit so clarified from all personalities and ambitions and national antagonisms that its purity and grandeur will furnish new inspiration to all workers in our cause. We must strike a note in this meeting so full of sisterly sympathy, of faith in womanhood, of exultant hope, a note so impelling, that it will be heard by the women of all lands and will call them forth to join our world's army."

The business sessions opened with all the officers present; over one hundred delegates and alternates from the now sixteen auxiliary countries; delegates sent by their governments and fraternal delegates from the International Council of Women, ten National Councils, seven non-affiliated national associations for woman suffrage and eleven national organizations in sympathy with it. Mrs. Catt introduced Mrs. Henry Dobson, sent by the Commonwealth of Australia; Miss Gina Krog, sent by the government of Norway; Dr. Romania Penrose, Mrs. Helen L. Grenfell and Mrs. Harriet O. Sheik, appointed by the Governors of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, U. S. A.

The following countries had their full quota of six delegates: Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United States, and nearly all had six alternates. Russia had five delegates; Finland, Switzerland and South Africa two each; Italy, Bulgaria, Australia and Canada one each. Miss Chrystal Macmillan of Scotland represented the International Council of Women; Dr. C. V. Drysdale, the Men's League for Women's Enfranchisement of Great Britain; Mrs. Marie Lang, the Austrian Committee for Woman Suffrage; Miss Franciska Plaminkova and Miss Marie Stepankova, the Czechish Woman Suffrage Committee of Bohemia; Mrs. Alice M. Steele, New Zealand the last three countries not yet affiliated. All kinds of organizations sent fraternal delegates, from the Union of Ethical Societies in London, whose delegate was Stanton Coit, their leader, to the Society of Peasant Women in Balmazujvaros, Hungary.

This was doubtless in many respects the most remarkable and important gathering of women ever assembled up to that time. English, French and German were adopted as the official languages. The wise and sympathetic management of Mrs. Catt convinced those of all nations that impartiality and justice would til without exception; a common bond united them; they learned that in all countries the obstacles to woman suffrage were the same and that in all women were oppressed by the inequality of the laws and by their disenfranchisement, and they understood the influence which could be exerted through an international movement. There were occasional misunderstandings on count of the varied parliamentary procedure in different countries and because of the interpreting much that took but on the whole the delegates were satisfied. They had intense admiration for the great executive ability of their president and showed their confidence in her again and again.

Switzerland, Bulgaria and South Africa having announced through their delegates that their suffrage societies had united in national associations and desired to become affiliated, they were enthusiastically accepted. Mrs. Stanton Coit of London, the new treasurer, paid a tribute to her predecessor, Miss Rodger Cunliffe, who had died since the last conference. Mrs. Pedersen-Dan reported that 8,677 badges had been sold. Many interesting discussions took place during the morning and afternoon sessions of which one of the most valuable was on the methods of work for the suffrage pursued in the various countries. These methods included debates in schools and colleges, distribution of literature, petitions to the Parliament, circulating libraries, courses of lectures, house-to-house canvassing, protests against paying taxes, mass meetings to show the need of a vote in matters of public welfare. In nearly all countries the suffragists were taking political action, questioning candidates by letter and in person and in some places working for or against them. This was especially the case in Great Britain and Miss Frances Sterling and Miss Isabella O. Ford told of the successful work at by-elections, of having thousands of postal cards sent to candidates by their constituents, of appealing to the workingmen. A report of the speech of Miss Margaret Ashton, a member of the city council of Manchester, quoted her as saying that, though the president of a large body of Liberal women, she had decided that it was useless to work further for her party unless it would enfranchise women. Women had worked sixty years for this party and now, if they will gain their own liberty, they must refuse to lift hand or foot for it until it enfranchises them.

Mrs. Rutgers Hoitsema of the Netherlands told of the efforts made to have woman suffrage put in its new constitution; of winning six of the seven members of the Government Commission and of the request of the Prime Minister for favorable printed arguments. Miss Annie Furuhjelm said in her report for Finland: "We got our suffrage through a revolution, so we can not be an example for other lands as to methods. We can say, however, that we used all methods in our work. In 1904 we had a great public meeting for woman suffrage. We organized a 'strike' against the conscription for the Russian Army and we found the mothers interested in saving their sons. The Social Democrats had woman suffrage in their platform before 1905 but the leading men of Finland would not have helped the women to the suffrage if the women had not shown that they understood the public questions of the day and taken an active part in resistance to an unlawful régime." She told of the election of nineteen women to Parliament in 1907. Mrs. Zeneide Mirovitch said in her touching report: "The women of Russia have not been able to work as those in other countries do, for their members are often in danger of imprisonment or death. They have lecturers who travel about to hold meetings; they publish a review of the work of their Union; members of it have started clubs which carry on general work for women's betterment. They have sold very cheaply 10,000 suffrage pamphlets; they have a committee in St. Petersburg which watches the acts of the Douma and when a law is proposed which concerns women and yet fails to consider them, this committee reminds the members of their needs. It protests against the massacres and outrages when women are assaulted and tortured. Now during the reaction the Union is not permitted to work in any way."

Mrs. Dora Montefiore of England spoke in favor of "militant" methods. An invitation to send fraternal delegates had been declined by Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst for the Women's Social and Political Union of Great Britain, who said they had more important work to do. It had been accepted by Mrs. Despard, president of the Womens' Freedom League, who came with seven delegates. She explained that its methods consisted only of trying to enter the House of Commons, holding meetings near by, heckling Government candidates, refusing to pay taxes, chalking pavements, etc. Mrs. Cobden Sanderson and Mrs. Billington Greig made vigorous, convincing speeches and all were enthusiastically received. The congress adopted a resolution of "protest against the action of any government which classes the women suffragists imprisoned for agitation for the vote as common law-breakers instead of political offenders." It also expressed its "sympathy for the Russian women in their struggle demanding so much sacrifice and its profound respect for the women who under great trial do not hesitate to stand for their rights." A message was received with applause during one session that '"the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church has resolved unanimously to give a vote to women on the questions that have until now been submitted only to the men of the congregation."

The evening meetings were largely given up to addresses and at the one where Woman Suffrage in Practice was considered Mrs. Madge Donohue of Australia, spoke on An Experiment Justified; Mrs. Steele, New Zealand, Fifteen Years of Woman Suffrage; Miss Furuhjelm, A True Democracy. At another evening session Miss Fredrikke Mörck gave the Results of Woman Suffrage in Norway. In a symposium, Why Should Representative Governments Enfranchise Women? the speakers were Miss Ashton, Mrs. Minna Cauer, Germany; Miss Janka Grossman, Hungary; Mrs. Theo. Haver, Netherlands; Mrs. Louise Keilhau, Norway; Mrs. Frigga Carlberg, Sweden; Mrs. Olga Golovine, Russia; Mrs. A. Girardet, Switzerland; Miss Macmillan, Great Britain. Here as at nearly all of the public meetings Dr. Anna Howard Shaw made the closing speech, for if she was not on the program the audience called for her. Mrs. Münter gave an address on the Legal Position of Danish Women; Dr. Elizabeth Altmann Gottheiner, Germany, Does the Working Woman Need the Ballot? Mrs. Miriam Brown, Canada, Ideal Womanhood; others were made by Miss Rosika Schwimmer, Hungary, and Miss Stirling, Great Britain. An afternoon meeting for young people was addressed by Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, chairman; Mrs. Ann M. Holmgren, Sweden; Dr. Anita Augspurg, Mrs. Mirovitch; Miss Rendell, Great Britain; Miss Schwimmer; Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, United States.

Much pleasure was expressed at the report of Mrs. Staatsministerinde Qvam, president of the National Woman Suffrage Association of Norway, who said in beginning: "Since we met in Copenhagen taxpaying women in Norway have obtained full suffrage and eligibility to office by a vote of 96 to 23 in the Parliament. About 300,000 women have become entitled to vote. It is calculated that 200,000 are yet excluded, although the tax is very small.... The object of our association is suffrage for women on the same terms as for men. "The men have universal suffrage. We therefore will continue our work until the women have gained this same right." Miss Eline Hansen gave an interesting report of winning the Municipal franchise in Denmark.

Woman Suffrage from a Christian Point of View was presented one afternoon by Mrs. Beelaerts von Blokland, chairman; Countess Anna von Hogendorp and Mr. Hugenholtz, all of the Netherlands; Mrs. Blauenfeldt, Denmark; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, United States. An address sent by Lady Frances Balfour was read by Mrs. C. H. Corbett, Great Britain; one sent by Mrs. Aline Hoffmann, Switzerland, was read by Miss Johanna W. A. Naber, Netherlands; one sent by Mme. Mangeret, France, was read by Mrs. Heineken-Daum, Netherlands. Greetings were given from the National Councils of Women of Germany and The Netherlands by their presidents, Mrs. Marie Stritt and Miss Elizabeth Baelde; from Great Britain, France, Belgium, Norway and Sweden by fraternal delegates, Mrs. Fawcett, Miss Cecile Cahen, Miss Ida La Fontaine, Miss Thea Holst, Dr. Lydia Wahlstrom; from national organizations by Mrs. Elna Munck, Denmark; Dr. Phil. Käthe Schirmacher, Germany; Miss Stepankova, Bohemia; Mrs. Lang, Austria; Miss K. Honegger represented the newly affiliated national association of Switzerland and Dr. Pateff and Miss Jenny Bojilowa that of Bulgaria. Most valuable reports were read from all the affliated countries containing accounts of their political conditions and the status of the movement for woman suffrage, which were printed in the Minutes, filling over fifty pages.

The Resolutions Committee, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, Miss Ashton and Mrs. van Loenen de Bores, reported strong resolutions, which were fully discussed and adopted. The last one was as follows: "Resolved, that the plain duty of women at the present hour is to secure the support and cooperation of all the forces favorable to woman suffrage, without question as to their political or religious affiliations; to avoid any entanglement with outside matters; to ask for the franchise on the same terms as it is now or may be exercised by men, leaving any required extension to be decided by men and women together when both have equal voice, vote and power."

The conference accepted with appreciation the cordial invitation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies of Great Britain, extended through its president, Mrs. Fawcett, to hold its next meeting in London. At the public session on the last evening Mrs. van Itallie Van Embden Netherlands, spoke on the subject, Does the Wife, Mother and Homekeeper Need the Ballot? Mrs. Anna Kalmanovitch, Russia, on The Final Aim of the Woman Movement; addresses were made by Mrs. Emilia Mariana, Italy; Mrs. Mirovitch, Dr. Wahlstrom and Dr. Shaw. Mrs. Catt gave the final words of farewell and the delegates parted in friendship to meet again as comrades in a great cause.

 

FIRST QUINQUENNIAL OF THE ALLIANCE.

The first Quinquennial and the Fifth Conference of the Alliance met in St. James Hall, London, April 26-May 1, 1909, with the president, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, in the chair. A cordial address of greeting was made at the first morning session by Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, president of the National Union of Women's suffrage Societies, the hostess of the guests from many nations. Preceding chapters have given an idea of the wide scope and the general character of these international meetings and the names of those who earliest represented their countries and their associations. Here at the end of the first five years the list of delegates and alternates filled four and a half printed pages and seventy-three fraternal delegates were present from forty-one different organizations; in addition there were speakers on the program who were not on these lists.

Among the organizations sending fraternal representatives, men and women of distinction, were International and National Councils of Women, Actresses', Artists' and Writers' Leagues, Women's Federation of the British Liberal Party, Conservative and Unionist Women's Franchise Associations, Men's Suffrage Leagues, Independent Labour Party, International Women's Socialist Bureau, Ethical Societies, Women's Trade Unions, Industrial Suffrage Societies, Women's National Press Association, Women's Agricultural Clubs, Fabian Society, National Committee against the White Slave Traffic—the list is almost endless. Naturally all wanted to be heard and how to permit this and leave any time for the regular proceedings of the convention became a serious question. The United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden sent their full quota of six delegates and six alternates. Five were present from Finland, six from Hungary and five from South Africa. The Government of Norway had sent as its official delegate Mrs. Staatsministerinde F. M. Qvam, president of the National Woman Suffrage Association. A National Association had now been formed in France and its secretary, Madame Jane Misme, brought its request for affiliation. A similar request was presented by Mlle. Daugotte, delegate from a new association in Belgium, and both were unanimously and joyfully welcomed.

At the first evening session the speakers were Mrs. Qvam, Miss Annie Furuhjelm, Finland; Mrs. Isabel May, New Zealand; Armitage Rigby, Isle of Man, all testifying to the good effects of woman suffrage in their respective countries, and Mrs. Catt delivered her president's address, a thorough review of the work of the Alliance. She said in part:

On a June day in 1904 the delegated representatives of seven National Woman Suffrage Associations met in a little hall in Berlin to discuss the practicability of completing a proposed International Union. At that date there were in all the world only ten countries in which woman suffrage organizations could be found. Those of you who were present will well remember the uncertainty and misgivings which characterized our deliberations. The doubting delegates questioned whether the times were yet ripe for this radical step; already over-taxed by the campaigns in their respective countries they questioned whether the possible benefits which might arise from international connection might not be over-balanced by the burden it would impose. There were delegates also who asked whether it was within the bounds of possibilities that suffragists could work together in harmony when they not only would represent differences of race and character but widely different stages of development of the movement itself. There were even more serious problems to be considered. Some of our associations were pledged to universal suffrage, some to Municipal, some to suffrage based upon a property or educational qualification. How could such differences, each defended as it was by intense conviction, be united in a common platform? ... Yet despite all these obstacles, which at that time seemed to many well nigh insurmountable, our International Alliance was founded "for better or worse" and I think I may add "till death do us part." Five years have passed away, prosperous, successful, triumphant years; prosperous, for we have known no quarrel or misunderstanding; successful, for the number of National Associations in our Alliance has more than doubled; triumphant, because the gains to our cause within the past five years are more significant in effect and meaning than all which had come in the years preceding. Indeed, when we look back over that little stretch of time and observe the mighty changes which have come within our movement; when we hear the reports of the awakening of men and women to the justice of our cause all the way around the world, I am sure that there is no pessimist among us who does not realize that at last the tide of woman's enfranchisement is coming in.

Mrs. Catt described the influence the Alliance had had in these changes and said: "We have been baptised in that spirit of the 2Oth century which the world calls Internationalism; it is a sentiment like love or religion or patriotism, which is to be experienced rather than defined in words. Under the influence of this new spirit we realize that we are not enlisted for the work of our own countries alone but that before us stretches the task of emancipating the women of the civilized world. ..." The brilliant Congress of Women held in Russia in spite of its reactionary government was described, and the women of Finland were urged not to be discouraged because the iron rule of Russia was again threatening their recently gained liberty. The progress in other European countries was sketched and the address then dealt unsparingly with the situation in Great Britain, where the women for years had organized and worked for the candidates of the political parties, and continued:

If the women of England have time enough to solicit votes for the men of their party and intelligence enough to train men to vote; if they do not neglect their homes and families when their political parties direct them to act as catspaws to pull the political chestnuts out of the fire and to put them into the Conservative and Liberal baskets, the world wants to know how these political parties are going to escape from the logic of the situation when these same women ask some of the chestnuts for themselves. Again, this nation was presided over for sixty years by a woman, and she was accounted worthy to present an annual Parliamentary Address in which she pointed out the duty of the members of Parliament. Now the outside world wants to know how that Parliament can consistently say that other British women are not even worthy to cast a vote to elect that body. There is still another reason why the world is watching England. The British Colonies have enfranchised women; how is the Home Government to explain the phenomenon of women, enfranchised in Australia, then disfranchised in England; enfranchised in New Zealand and disfranchised when they return to the mother country?

She called attention to the forming of the Anti-Suffrage Association by women in Great Britain and said: "They are sending in a petition to Parliament. It is well known that people by nature are opposed to new things; before education people are antisuffragists. If a petition opposed to woman suffrage should be presented to the Hottentots, the Afghanistans, the tribes of Thibet or to the interior of Turkey, every individual would sign it and the longest petition 'opposed to the further extension of rights to women' yet known could be secured there. A petition for suffrage, however, carries a very different meaning; every name represents a convert, a victory, an education of the understanding, an answer to an appeal for justice. A woman suffrage petition is a gain; an anti-suffrage petition merely shows how much more must be gained. One is positive, the other negative. Wait a little and you will find that England, and other countries as well, will perceive the real truth, that the anti-suffrage women: are the most inconsistent products of all the ages."

The flaying did not stop here but Mrs. Catt called attention to the fact that this convention celebrated the birthday of Mary Wollstonecraft, referred to the position of women in her time and said:

There have been women who have crucified their very souls and the lineal ancestors of the present-day "antis" with withering scorn and criticism opposed every step. Yet some of those modern anti-suffragists possess a college degree, an opportunity which other women won for them in the face of universal ridicule; they own property which is theirs today as the effect of laws which other women labored for a quarter of a century to secure; they stand upon public platforms where free speech for women was won for them by other women amid the jeers of howling mobs; they use the right of organization which was established as the result of many a heartache and many a brave endeavor when the world condemned it as a threat against all moral order. They accept with satisfaction every political right which has been accorded by their Government; they even accept public office. They take all as their birthright; and yet, endowed with this power of education, of property, of organization, of free speech, of partial political rights, they turn upon the last logical effort in the movement which has given them so much and with supreme self-satisfaction say: "Thus far shalt thou come and no farther." It takes no logic to perceive the inconsistency of such a position....

The changed position of women in the world of labor was sketched; the old divisions were obliterated; a great army of women were now competing with men in the open market and there were found not only women but little children. Everywhere was cruel injustice to women, barred out from the higher places, working for half the pay of men in others, and discriminated against even by the labor unions, "They are utterly at the mercy of selfish employers, of hard economic conditions and unfair legislation," she said. 'The only logical conclusion is to give votes to working women that they may defend their own wages, hours and conditions. We have worked to gain the suffrage because the principle is just. We must work for it now because this great army of wage-earning women are crying to us for help, immediate help.... You and I must know no sleep or rest or hesitation so long as a single civilized land has failed to recognize equal rights for men and women, in the workshop and the factory, at the ballot box and in the Parliament, in the home and in the church."

Here as at all meetings of the Alliance one of the most valuable features was the reports from the various countries, reaching almost from "the Arctic Circle to the equator," of the progress in the movement for suffrage, juster laws for women, better industrial conditions. Printed in fifty-seven pages of the Minutes they formed a storehouse of information nowhere else to be found. As the struggle of the "militants" in Great Britain was attracting world-wide attention to the exclusion of the many years of persistent work by the original association in educating not only women themselves but also public opinion to see the necessity for woman suffrage, the report of its president, Mrs. Fawcett, had a special interest:

The year which has just closed is the most strenuous and active we have ever known since women's suffrage has been before the country. The number of societies which combine to form the National Union has more than doubled. The membership in several societies has more than doubled and in others has largely increased; in One important society it has been multiplied by five. The number of meetings held throughout the year in connection with the National Union alone has been unprecedented, an average of at least four a day. The experience gained at bye-elections confirms the Union in their view that by far the most effective work can be done by acting strictly on non-party lines and supporting that candidate whose record and declarations on the subject of suffrage are the most satisfactory....

 

At the beginning of last November Mrs. Garrett Anderson, M.D., was elected Mayor of Aldeburgh; Miss Dove, M.A., the head mistress of Wycombe Abbey School, came within two votes of being chosen Mayor of the borough of High Wycombe. Several women at the same time were elected as borough councillors, among whom we may mention our colleague, Miss Margaret Ashton, the president of the Manchester and North of England Society for Women's Suffrage. A large Conservative and Unionist Association for women's suffrage has been formed. Its president is Lady Knightley of Fawsley and among its vice-presidents are the Duchess of Sutherland, the Countess of Meath, Viscountess Middleton, Lady Robert Cecil, Miss Alice Balfour, etc.

 

In December a weighty and closely reasoned statement of the case for women's suffrage was presented to the Prime Minister by the Registered Medical Women of the United Kingdom. The committee were able to inform Mr. Asquith that out of 553 all but 15 support the extension of the Parliamentary franchise to women. The case for women's suffrage was argued before the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords in November last with great ability by Miss Chrystal Macmillan, M.A., B.Sc. The case was raised on the plea of women graduates of the Scottish Universities that they were entitled to vote in the election for the members of Parliament representing the universities. The word used in the Scottish University Act was "persons"—all "persons" having passed such and such degrees and fulfilled such and such conditions were entitled to vote in such elections, The case had been heard before two Scottish Courts and adverse decisions had been given. The House of Lords was appealed to as the highest Court and it confirmed the decisions of the lower courts that the word "persons" does not include women when it refers to privileges granted by the State.

Mrs. Fawcett spoke of the work of the Union year after year for the suffrage bill in Parliament; of the enrollment during the present year of over 300 men eminent in literature, science, the arts, law, public offices, churches, education, commerce, etc.; of its great procession and the demonstration in Albert Hall. She said of the other organization, which was yet in its early stages of aggressiveness: 'Opinions greatly differ in suffrage circles as to the effect produced on the cause by what are known as 'militant' tactics. It is difficult for one who is completely identified with constitutional methods to judge aright the total result of unconstitutional forms of agitation. That the 'militants' have been courageous and self-sacraficing no one denies. That they have provoked discussion and aroused attention is equally obvious and from these our cause always stands to gain. On the other hand many of us feel a profound conviction, which experience only strengthens, that women are adopting a mistaken course in appealing to violence. Our business as women asking for justice is not to rely upon physical force but in the eternal principles of right and justice. Law abiding methods alienate no one while methods of violence and disorder create anti-suffragists by the hundreds."

To this convention, as to the one of the preceding year in Amsterdam, Mrs. Pankhurst refused to send any representatives of the Women's Social and Political Union. A mass meeting under its auspices was held in Albert Hall one evening and many of the delegates accepted an official invitation to attend.

At an afternoon session ten minute addresses were made by Mrs. Betsy Kjelsberg of Norway on Six Years' Experience in Municipal Work; by Mrs. Madge Donohoe for Australia, The Latest Victory; by Dr. phil. Gulli Petrini of Sweden, Suffrage Work on Both Sides of the Polar Cirle; by Mrs. Rutgers-Hoitsema, A Curious Football Game in Holland; others by Mrs. Zeneide Mirovitch, Russia; Miss Theo. Daugaard, Denmark; Mlle. Daugotte, Belgium; Mme. Auberlet, France; Mrs. Saul Solomon, South Africa. The Dutch Men's League for Women Suffrage was represented by E. J. van Straaten, LL.D. and F. F. W. Kehrer-Gorinchens; the British by Herbert Jacobs and Dr. C. W. Drysdale. Mrs. Anna M. Haslam, fraternal delegate from the Irish Women's Suffrage Association, and her husband, Thomas J., the oldest delegates, were most cordially received. The Bohemian delegate, Marie Tumova, could not be present because making a campaign for election to the Diet.

The delegates had a strenuous time trying to attend the business meetings, listen to the excellent programs of prominent speakers, go to the enjoyable social affairs and make the visits and excursions to the many historical places in and around London which most of them had always longed to see. The Executive Committee of the National Union, Mrs. Fawcett, chairman, served as Reception Committee; its treasurer, Miss Bertha Mason, expended the large fund subscribed for the use of the convention; the Press Committee managed the newspapers through Miss Compton Burnett; Mrs. Anstruther, Rutland House, Portland Gardens, had the exacting but pleasant duties of chairman of the Hospitality Committee.

A delightful reception on Sunday evening, April 25, at the Lyceum Club, introduced the pleasures of the week, which ended with a handsome reception given by the Men's League for Women's Suffrage on Saturday evening. There was a brilliant official dinner at Prince's Restaurant and there were teas and concerts and dramatic entertainments. To most of the delegates the weeks were the richest in experience ever known, with the specially conducted visits to famous universities and schools; cathedrals and abbeys; galleries and palaces; courts and gardens— every spot filled with historic associations for English speaking people and with intense interest for those of other countries. For delegates concerned with civic and social work there was the keenest enjoyment in the specialized and extensive developments along many lines. The Minutes of the convention thus describe one of its leading events:

The mass meeting at the Royal Albert Hall under the auspices of the London Society for Women's Suffrage afforded the delegates a most impressive display of the earnestness of the British suffragists. A procession of women engaged in various trades and professions, carrying the emblems of their work, marched from Eaton Square to the hall. It was a wonderful inspiration to the brave bands of pioneers from other lands to see the long procession march with fluttering flags and swinging lanterns along the darkening streets, greeted now with sympathy, now with jeers. As it entered the hall and trade after trade, profession after profession filed past the platform on which were seated women of all nations, the enthusiasm reached its height. It would be impossible to give a list of the groups but especially notable were the chain makers from Cradley Heath, who toil for about four shillings per week of sixty hours. The common remark that the suffrage movement is an amusement for rich women was once for all disproved as the factory workers and cotton operatives in their distinctive dress swung into the vast arena. The group of women doctors in their gorgeous robes were loudly cheered, as were the nurses and midwives who followed, while teachers of all branches of the profession closed the long line. There were notable speeches but the real effect of the meeting lay in the wonderful gathering itself, women of all nations, classes, creeds and occupations united for a common purpose, together with men, filling one of the largest halls in Europe. Mrs. Fawcett, LL.D., presided and the speakers were Ramsey McDonald, M.P., Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Frances Sterling and Mrs. Philip Snowden.

Twice during the convention it came in touch with royalty in an interesting way. At the official dinner Mrs. Qvam, delegate from the Norwegian Government and president of the National Suffrage Association, brought greetings and wishes for the success of the congress from Queen Maud of Norway, a daughter of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, to which an appreciative response was sent. At a morning session the birth of a daughter to the Queen of the Netherlands was announced and at the request of Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the National Suffrage Association of that country, a telegram of congratulations from the Alliance was sent.

There was much discussion over the motion that all organizations auxiliary to the Alliance must have woman suffrage as their sole object. It was finally decided in the affirmative and a flood of societies of every description was excluded. The number of delegates permitted to each country was increased from six to twelve, with twelve alternates. A resolution was adopted urging the National Suffrage Association of each nation to prepare a comprehensive statement of the laws which place women at a disadvantage in regard to property, earnings, marriage, divorce, guardianship of children, education, industrial conditions and political rights, and to explain, when demanding their immediate enfranchisement from their respective Parliaments, that they consider these injustices can be effectively removed only through joint political action by men and women. This was introduced at the request of Lady McLaren, who had prepared such a charter for Great Britain. Many beautiful designs for a flag and banner had been submitted and it was found that the one selected was the work of Miss Branting of Sweden. The international hymn chosen from a number which were submitted was written by Mrs. Theodora Flower Mills.

As this was the quinquennial meeting officers were elected. Mrs. Catt was unanimously re-elected and the following received large majorities: Mrs. Fawcett, first, and Miss Furuhjelm, second vice-presidents; Miss Martina Kramers, Netherlands; Mrs. Anna Lindemann, Germany; Miss Signe Bergman, Sweden, first, second and third secretaries; Mrs. Stanton Coit, treasurer. As the time of holding the regular session of the Alliance was changed from five to four years they were elected to hold office until 1913. Mrs. Catt welcomed the new officers and warmly thanked the retiring officers for their valuable services. The invitation to hold the congress of 1911 in Stockholm, if the political conditions were favorable, was accepted with pleasure.

The Resolutions presented by the committee—/Miss Frances Sterling, Great Britain; Mrs. E. R. Mirrlees, South Africa; Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, United States—and adopted, summarized the gains of the past few years in Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Bohemia, Cape Colony and the Transvaal and said: "This Congress, remembering the lessons of history, urges the National Societies not to be betrayed into postponing their claim for the enfranchisement of women for any other object, whether it be the further extension of the suffrage to men or the success of some political party." At the last meeting of the delegates Mrs. Catt thanked them for their hearty cooperation with their president; she urged them to demand the suffrage upon the broadest basis, namely, that the government may rest equally on the will of both men and women, and said the Alliance would wield great influence if they remained united and they would secure the enfranchisement of the women of the world for all future generations. A public meeting in St. James Hall was held on the last evening with Mrs. Catt in the chair and addresses of the highest order were made by Miss Margaret Ashton, Men and Women; the Rev. Ivory Cripps, the Nation's Need of Women; Miss Rosika Schwimmer, The Hungarian Outlook; H. Y. Stanger, M. P., The Prospect of Franchise Reform; Dr. Kathe Schirmacher, Woman Suffrage.

On the Sunday afternoon preceding the convention the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw preached for a Men’s ‘Meeting at Whitefield’s, Tottenham Court Road, the most of the large and interested audience hearing for the first time a sermon by a woman. On the Sunday following the convention she preached in the morning for the West London Ethical Society in the Kensington Town Hall and in the evening at the King’s Weigh House Chapel, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon the Rev. Canon Scott Holland gave a sermon in St. Paul’s Cathedral, the national church, on the Religious Aspect of Women’s Suffrage, with two hundred seats reserved for the delegates, and they felt a deep thrill of rejoicing at hearing within those ancient walls a strong plea for the enfranchisement of women. They were invited to attend the next evening a symposium by the Shakespeare League at King’s College on What Shakespeare Thought of Women.

 

SIXTH CONFERENCE OF THE ALLIANCE.

The Sixth Conference and Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance took place in the banquet hall of the Grand Hotel, Stockholm, June 12-17, 1911. The coming of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the Alliance, had been widely heralded. She had been received in Copenhagen with national honors by cabinet ministers and foreign legations; the American flag run up for her wherever she went and the Danish colors dipped and there was almost a public ovation. In Christiania she was met with a greeting from a former Prime Minister and an official address of welcome from the Government and was received by King Haakon. At Stockholm she was met by deputations with flowers and speeches. Dinners, receptions and concerts followed. The American and Swedish flags waved together. The whole city knew that something important was going to happen. In the midst of it all the woman suffrage bill came up for discussion in both Houses of the Parliament. The international president was escorted to the Lower House by a body of women that crowded the galleries. After a stormy debate the bill to enfranchise the women of Sweden received a majority vote. In the midst of the applause Mrs. Catt was hurried to the Upper Chamber, the stronghold of caste and conservatism. Her presence and that of the flower of Swedish womanhood did not save the bill from the usual defeat.

The congress opened with representatives from twenty-four affiliated National Associations and two Committees, those of Austria and Bohemia. The government of Norway sent as its official delegate Dr. Kristine Bonnevie. The list of delegates filled seven printed pages, the United States, the Netherlands and Sweden having the full quota of twelve delegates and twelve alternates, Germany lacking only three of the latter, while Great Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Hungary had twelve or more. Six were present from Russia; Bulgaria, Servia, Switzerland, South Africa, Iceland and Canada had representatives. Of fraternal delegates from other organizations there was no end—about seventy men and women—among them members of five Men’s Leagues for Woman Suffrage—in the United States, Great Britain, Netherlands, Hungary and Sweden. In addition to the spoken words letters and telegrams of greeting were read from societies and individuals in twelve different countries. The distinguished guests of the occasion were Dr. Selma Lagerlof of Sweden, who had recently received the Nobel Literature Prize, and Miss Helena Westermarck of Finland, the eminent writer and publicist. Among prominent speakers were Mayor Carl Lindhagen and Ernest Beckman, M. P., the Rev. K. H. G. von Scheele, Bishop of Visby, and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Fries. The ushers and pages were women students of the universities.

On the Sunday afternoon preceding the convention the precedent of all past ages was broken when Dr. Anna Howard Shaw preached in the ancient State Church of Gusta Vasa. When the Swedish women asked for the use of the church they were told that this could be granted only to a minister of the same demonination but they learned that when a minister from another country was visiting Sweden the pastor of the church might invite him to occupy his pulpit at his discretion. The pastor said he would run the risk, knowing that he might incur the displeasure of the Bishop, and Dr. Shaw, therefore, felt a double responsibility. She could not enter the pulpit, however, but spoke from a platform in front of it. It was a never to be forgotten scene. The grand old church was crowded to the last inch of space, although admission was by ticket. Facing the chancel were the thirty famous women singers of Goteborg, their cantor a woman, and the noted woman organist and composer, Elfrida Andrée, who composed the music for the occasion. In the center of all was the little black-robed minister. It was said by many to be the most wonderful sermon of her life and after the service was over the pastor, with tears rolling down his cheeks, went up to her with hands outstretched and taking both of hers said: "I am the happiest man in Sweden." Sunday evening a reception was given at the Restaurant Rosenbad to the officers, presidents of national auxiliaries and Swedish Committee of Arrangements by its chairman, Mrs. Bertha Nordenson. At six o'clock excursions of many delegates had started to enjoy the long evening when the sun did not set till nearly midnight.

The official report of the first executive session Monday morning said: "Miss Janet Richards, delegate from the U. S. A., with an admirable speech, presented to the Alliance from the State which had recently given full suffrage to women a gavel bearing the inscription: "To the International W. S. A. from the Washington Equal Suffrage Association." It was annnounced that National Suffrage Associations had been formed in Iceland and Servia and they were gladly accepted as auxiliaries, bringing the number up to twenty-six. The municipality had contributed 3,000 crowns to the congress, which proved to be the largest ever held in Stockholm. Season tickets had been sold to 1,200 persons and other hundreds bought tickets to the various meetings. During the entire week the flags of the nations represented at the congress floated from the flagstaffs that lined the quay in front of the Grand Hotel facing the royal palace, as far as the eye could reach. All the time Mrs. Catt was in the city the American flag was run up for her as a public guest wherever she went and the Swedish colors dipped a salute.

The Congress was formally opened in the afternoon of June 12 with addresses of welcome from Miss Anna Whitlock, acting president of the National Suffrage Association of Sweden, and the Hon. Ernest Beckman, M. P., president of the National Swedish Liberal Association, and response from the Alliance was made by Miss Chrystal Macmillan of Great Britain, proxy for Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, its first vice-president. Miss Anna Kleman, president of the Stockholm suffrage society, then presented the beautiful white satin, gold embroidered Alliance banner, which was carried by six university students in white dresses with sashes of the Swedish colors. Mrs. Catt announced that the Alliance flag was now flying over the Grand Hotel where they were assembled. The banner was the gift of Miss Lotten von Kroemer, a pioneer suffragist of Sweden, and the flag of the resident Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Tea Co., U. S.A. A suffrage song written by K. G. Ossian-Nillson and the music composed by Hugo Alfven for the occasion was sung by the Women's Choir of Goteborg, after which an official delegate of the Government extended its greeting while the audience rose and the flags of the nations waved from the galleries. Mrs. Catt received an ovation as she came to the front of the platform to make her address. It filled twenty-three pages of the printed minutes and was a complete resumé of the early position of women, the vast changes that had been wrought and the great work which the Alliance was doing. Only a few quotations are possible:

In the recent debate on the bill in the Swedish Parliament a university professor said in a tone of eloquent finality: "The woman suffrage movement has reached and passed its climax; the suffrage wave is now rapidly receding." With patronizing air, more droll than he could know, the gentleman added: 'We have permitted this movement to come thus far but we shall allow it to go no farther." Thus another fly resting upon the proverbial wheel of progress commanded it to turn no more. This man engages our attention because he is a representative of a type to be found in all our lands; wise men on the wrong side of a great question, modern Joshuas who command the sun to stand still and believe that it will obey.

 

Long centuries before the birth of Darwin an old-time Hindoo wrote: "I stand on a river's bank. I know not whence the waters come or whither they go. So deep and silent is its current that I know not whether it flows north or south; all is mystery to me; but when I climb yon summit the river becomes a silver thread weaving its length in and out among the hills and over the plains. I see it all from its source in yonder mountain to its outlet in yonder sea. There is no more mystery." So these university professors buried in school books, these near-sighted politicians, fail to note the meaning of passing events. To them the woman movement is an inexplicable mystery, but to us standing upon the summit of international union, where we may observe every manifestation of this movement in all parts of the world, there is no mystery. From its sources ages ago, amid the protests which we know barbaric women must have made against the cruel wrongs done their sex, we clearly trace its course through the centuries, moving slowly but majestically onward, gathering momentum with each century, each generation, until just before us lies the golden sea of woman's full liberty.

Mrs. Catt traced the progress of the ages until it culminated in the demand for political rights for women, told of the beginnning of the Alliance and said: "Today, seven years later, our Alliance counts 26 auxiliary national associations. Are these evidences of a wave rapidly receding? It would be more in accordance with facts should we adopt the proud boast of the British Empire and say that the sun now never sets upon woman suffrage activities. The subscribing membership in the world has increased seven times in the past seven years and it has doubled since the London congress two years ago. Even in Great Britain, where the opposition declared at that time very confidently that the campaign had reached its climax, the National Union, our auxiliary, has tripled its individual membership, tripled its auxiliary societies and doubled its funds since then, and twelve independent suffrage societies have been organized. The membership and campaign funds have likewise tripled in the United States and every president of an auxiliary national society has reported increase in numbers, funds and activity.... No human power, no university professor, no Parliament, no government, can stay the coming of woman suffrage. It is a step in the evolution of society and the eternal verities are behind it.... Of the 24 nations represented in this congress the women of 15 have more political rights than they had seven years ago."

Mrs. Catt paid high tribute to the Scandinavian people and eulogized Fredrika Bremer, Sweden's great pioneer. In speaking of the progress in this country she said: "Municipal suffrage has now been extended to married women and eligibility to office to all women. Organizations exist in 170 towns, some of them north of the Arctic Circle; there is a paying membership of 12,000 and 1,550 meetings have been held in the last two years. Two political parties espouse the cause. Women may vote for town and county councils, which elect the Upper House of Parliament, and thirty-seven are serving on these councils." She referred eloquently to the honored Selma Lagerlof and to Dr. Lydia Wahlstrom, the recent president of the National Suffrage Association, who had been crowned with a laurel wreath for her wisdom by the University of Upsala. She told of a questionnaire she had sent to the presidents of the national suffrage associations in all countries asking what were the indications that the woman suffrage movement was growing and said: "Such volumes of evidence of progress were received that it is quite impossible to give an idea of its far reaching character....^[3]

At the official reception given by the National Suffrage Association of Sweden in the evening the guests were welcomed by Mrs. Ann Margret Holmgren and their appreciative responses were made by Mrs. Margaret Hodge, Australia; Miss Gabriella Danzerova, Bohemia; Mrs. Daisy Minor, Austria; Miss Helen Clay-Petersen, Denmark; Miss Annnie Furuhjelm, Finland; Madam DeWitt Schlumberger, France; Dr. jur. Anita Augspurg, Germany; Mrs. Olga Ungar, Hungary; Mrs. Philip Snowden, Great Britain. These were followed by a cantata beautifully rendered by the Göteborg choir, words and music by women.

During the convention Lieutenant Colonel W. A. E. Mansfeldt of Holland made the report for its Men's League for Woman Suffrage; Dr. C. V. Drysdale for Great Britain; Jean du Breuil for France; Dr. Alexander Patai for Hungary; Frederick Nathan for the United States, and the founding of an International Men's League was announced with Colocel Mansfeldt secretary.

The reports of the work of the different branches and their discussion, bringing before the Alliance the experience and opinions of women from all parts of the world, were perhaps the most valuable feature of the conference. The most animated and vital of these discussions was the one of a political nature, divided into three parts: 1. What political work have the women of the enfranchised countries done, what is their relation to the different parties and how do these treat them? Have they any advice to offer? led by Miss Hodge, Mrs. Louise Keilhau, Norway; Dr. Tekla Hultin, M. P., Finland. 2. How can woman's political influence be brought to bear most effectively on Parliaments and governments? Led by Mrs. Snowden; Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell, Sweden; Dr. Käthe Schirmacher, Germany; Miss Richards. 3. What should be the relation of the suffrage movement to political parties in the unenfranchised countries? Led by Miss Eline Hansen, Denmark; Miss Rosika Schwimmer, Hungary; Madame Pichon, France; Mrs. Zeneide Mirovitch, Russia. There was a wide divergence of opinion but at last a resolution was unanimously adopted that "woman suffrage societies do their best work when organized in a non-partisan manner." In order to remove persistent misunderstanding a statement presented by Mrs. Catt was adopted explaining the wording of the resolution demanding "the franchise for women on the same terms as it is or may be exercised by men." It declared that the Alliance had on no occasion taken a position for or against any special form of suffrage but that the affiliated societies were left entirely free to determine for themselves which form they would demand. The Alliance did not express an opinion as to what should be the qualifications for enfranchisement, its sole object being to establish the principle that sex should not be a disqualification.

No more eminent group of women speakers ever appeared before an audience than those who spoke in the Royal Opera House of Stockholm on the second evening of the convention. Mrs. Catt presided and addresses were made by Miss Westermarck, Dr. Augspurg, Mrs. Snowden, Miss Schwimmer, Dr. Shaw and Sweden's best beloved Selma Lagerlöf. The last named moved the audience to tears during her address on Home and State by her impassioned plea for the enfranchisement of women. It was said by delegates from the various countries who had attended many of these international gatherings that this meeting surpassed all others. Another which differed from all that had gone before was the great gathering in Skansen, the magnificest park, where at 7 o'clock, from two platforms, noted speakers from ten countries addressed an audience of thousands. A dinner followed in the park house, Hogenloft, with fine music, and then in the open air the visitors saw the famous national dances and processions by the young people in the picturesque costumes of the country.

Although the official languages of the Alliance were French, German and English a crowded meeting was held one evening in the People's House with the speeches in the northern tongues, understood by all the Scandinavian people. It was opened by Mayor Lindhagen, an ardent advocate of woman suffrage. At another session the Woman Question in the Russian Parliament was considered by the noted woman leader, Dr. Shiskin-Yavein; the Suffrage Outlook in Bohemia by Miss Maria Tumova, recent candidate for Parliament; the Future of South African Women by Miss Nina Boyle. A special meeting was held one afternoon in the hall of the Young Women's Christian Association. Mrs. Marie Stritt, Germany; Mme. Maria Verone, France, and Miss Macmillan were appointed to compile a pamphlet of information about woman suffrage in all lands to be used for propaganda work.

A delegate from the United States, Professor Mary Gray Peck, officially connected with its national suffrage headquarters, gave the following description in a letter to the press:

The ball room of the Grand Hotel where the meetings were held is a palatial apartment, its walls richly gilded and adorned with long mirrors between the windows, while from the ceiling hang great crystal chandeliers, which were always lighted while the congress was in session. The platform for officers and distinguished guests was placed between gilded pillars at one end of the hall, draped and canopied with the national colors of Sweden, blue and yellow, and the international suffrage colors, yellow and white. Then there is the memory of other places where the delegates assembled, the ancient State Church, with its reminder of St. Paul's in London; the splendid Academy of Music, with the heraldic banners of the nations suspended around the gallery; the Royal Opera House with its tiers of balconies and the rising of the curtain to show the beautiful stage picture of the speakers and the arch of flowers beneath which they spoke; the Moorish court in the Royal Hotel, where the reception was held, with the delightful Birgitta cantata, recalling the heroic in Swedish womanhood; the open air meeting at Skansen with the native songs and dances; the farewell in the garden at Saltsjobaden, given by the Stockholm society; the peasant singing and the wonderful ride back to the city by late northern twilight and moonlight together. The closing speech of the congress made by the international president at the close of the dinner at Saltsjcbaden was something indescribable. She stood on a balcony facing the sunset sky and blue sea, with pine trees forming an amphitheater in the background. It was like a triumphant recessional, with benediction for the past and challenge for the future, and when the speaker descended from the balcony and went down to the boat landing followed by the singing of the peasants, the crowd divided, leaving a wide path, and stood gazing after her as though she were too imperial to be followed by anything but music.

On the Sunday following the congress an excursion was arranged on beautiful Lake Malaren to the ancient Castle of Gripsholm, where evening dinner was served. The city council and the State railways financially assisted the Entertainment Committee. At all of the Alliance congresses the social entertainments were a marked feature. The hospitality was boundless and each country had its historic places and beautiful resorts which differed so much from those of all others as to give them an indescribable charm and interest. Following is part of the report of this one by Mrs. Anna Lindemann, secretary of the Alliance:^[4]

The official entertainments were most appropriately opened by the truly international greeting which Mrs. Holmgren, one of the founders of the Swedish suffrage movement, addressed to the guests at the reception in the Grand Hotel Royal. Her words which gave a hearty welcome to the French and German-speaking guests and to our Swedish sisters in their several languages; the beautiful cantata written by Sigrid Leijonhufvud, the music composed by Alfrida Andree specially for this occasion, and last but not least the presence of the woman all of us had long known and loved before we saw her, Selma Lagerlof, made us feel at home in Sweden at once. This feeling deepened as time went on and Wednesday evening at Skansen a new note was added. All we saw of Swedish nature and Swedish life in that beautiful open air museum, the national dances, the characteristic art of Sven Scholander and his daughter Lisa, gave us a deeper understanding of the people whose guests we were and showed us some of the roots from which it draws its strength. Another aspect also, the refined culture of modern Sweden, was the dominant note of the dinner at Hasselbacken with the heartfelt speech of the venerable Bishop Scheele of Visby.

On a background of lovely scenery this week will stand out in our memory as one long summer day with a long, long evening full of silver light.... During the carriage drive generously provided by Miss Lotten von Kraemer our hearts were gladdened by the many expressions of sympathy we met on our way, from the dear old women, who waved their handkerchiefs and their aprons, down to small girls by the side of their mothers.... Especially the day at Upsala, by invitation of its suffrage society, will not be forgotten. The warm-hearted reception, the gay flags all through the town, at once lifted up the spirit of the whole gathering, which found a charming expression in the improvised festive procession from the botanical garden to the cathedral. The presence and eloquence of the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw gave an added dignity to this as to many others of our soctal gatherings. Schools, hospitals, museums, exhibitions of all kinds of women's art and women's work, were visited.... [The many private invitations were referred to.] The thirty-six delegates, who accepted Mrs. Caroline Benedick-Bruce's invitation to the Island of Visby, have told us that words failed to describe this beautiful day.

Looking back on the time that lies behind us, we, the women who have come here from all over the world, thank our Swedish sisters for the inspiration their kindness and their loving reception have been to us. We thank Sweden for the splendid women it has produced. We have seen the many elements that have worked together to attain this result; we have learned to admire and respect Swedish history, Swedish culture, Swedish art; and as, besides the many other things this congress has done for us, it has most specially taught us to love the Swedish women, we can express no better wish for our future conventions than that every new country which receives us may in the same way widen our hearts by a new love.

 

SEVENTH CONFERENCE OF THE ALLIANCE.

The International Woman Suffrage Alliance held its Seventh Conference and Congress in Budapest June 15-21, 1913. As had been the case with all that had preceded, the place of meeting had been chosen with reference to the situation in regard to woman suffrage where the prospect for it seemed favorable and it was desired to influence public sentiment by showing that the movement for it was world-wide. When it had been announced at the congress in Stockholm that the next one would be held in the capital of Hungary it had seemed very far away and that country was not associated with representative government. It proved to be, however, one of the largest and most important of the conventions and its efforts were widespread, as the delegates stopped en route for mass meetings and public banquets in Berlin, Dresden, Prague and Vienna. Twenty-two countries were represented by 240 delegates and alternates. The full quota of 24 were present from Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Great Britain, the United States and Hungary; Finland sent 15; Denmark and Norway 11 each; Switzerland 9; Italy 8; Russia 5; Belgium and Austria, 4 each; from South Africa came 4, from Iceland, 2; from Canada, 3; from Bohemia one.

It was indeed a cosmopolitan assemblage. The government of Australia had an official delegate, Mrs. Frederick Spencer, and that of Norway two, the president of the National Suffrage Association, Mrs. F. M. Qvam, and the president of the National Council of Women, Miss Gina Krog. The Governors of California, Oregon and Washington had appointed representatives. Written or telegraphed greetings were received from nineteen countries, encircling the globe. The question of fraternal delegates reached its climax, as 163 were present from twelve countries, all wishing to offer their greetings and a large number intending to advocate the particular object of their organizations. A resolution was finally adopted that no credentials should be accepted until the society presenting them should be approved by the National Suffrage Association of its country and no fraternal delegate should speak except by invitation of the president of the Alliance and with the consent of the congress. This checked a torrent of oratory and allowed the convention to carry out its program. The Chinese Woman Suffrage Society was admitted, for which Mrs. Catt had sowed the seeds at the time of her visit to that country, and the beautifully embroidered banner they had sent was presented to the Alliance by Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the Netherlands Association, who had accompanied her. She said in part:

It is difficult to speak to an audience which certainly does not know the Chinese women in their own land, an audience of which only a few have had the privilege to hear from the lips of those feet-bound women what an important part they have taken in the revolution of their country and in the political reform which has resulted from it; to make you clearly understand the spirit of these Chinese women when they offered this banner to Mrs. Catt, as president of the Alliance, in gratitude for what it is doing for the uplifting of womanhood, and when they expressed their hope that it would take the Chinese women under its care. You have not been, as Mrs. Catt and I have, in the south of the country, where we saw Chinese women sitting in Parliament but from whom the vote is now taken away. You have not heard, as we did, in many towns, the Chinese women speak in crowded meetings to a mixed, enthusiastic audience with an eloquence none of us can surpass. You can not imagine how hard is the struggle for liberty which they have to make. In every town we found intelligent women with the same love for freedom as inspires us, who hunger after righteousness just as we do and who devote not only all their money but their entire life to the struggle for the improvement of the position of the women of their country.

 

Many of the Chinese women have already been decapitated for the truth they have told while fighting their battle for freedom and all the leaders of the woman movement know that their life is uncertain and that any day the men may find a reason to silence them when their eloquence and enthusiasm make too many converts. In translating the words which they embroidered upon this bright red satin you will learn what is going on in the minds of the new Chinese women: "The Mutual Helping Society to the International Alliance. Helping each other, all of one mind." In the name of these Chinese women I ask you to accept this banner in the same loyal spirit in which it is offered and to welcome the Chinese suffragists into our Alliance.

A handsome banner was presented by the delegation from Galicia. The president of the Belgian Association reported that Roman Catholic, Conservative, Socialist and Progressive women had united in a non-partisan federation to work only for woman suffrage. South Africa, Roumania and Portugal associations were received in full membership and also a committee from Galicia, where women were not allowed to form an association. Greetings came by cable from the women of Persia.

No tribute can do justice to the genius of Rosika Schwimmer in arranging for this remarkable convention, the first of the kind ever held in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Both the government and the municipality made liberal contributions, which the citizens supplemented with more than enough to pay the entire expenses of the congress, that was conducted on a liberal scale. A sale of 2,800 season tickets was made. Through the assistance of capable committees every effort possible was made for the comfort and pleasure of the delegates, who were cared for from the moment they arrived at the station. English speaking university students and others of education helped to overcome the extreme difficulties of the language. So many delightful expeditions into the wonderful country had been provided through the courtesy of the railroads and navigation company that it required a strong sense of duty for the delegates to attend to the business of the convention. A reception given Saturday evening by the National Suffrage Association at the Gerbaud Pavilion enabled officers, delegates and members of the committees to begin acquaintance and friendship.

According to the custom of the country the convention was opened on Sunday afternoon. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw had conducted religious services in the morning at the Protestant church in Buda, assisted by the Rev. Eliza Tupper Wilkes, by courtesy of its minister, the Rev. Benno Haypal. At four o'clock a large and cordial audience assembled in the grand Academy of Music for the official welcome, which began with an overture by the orchestra of the National theater, composed for the occasion by Dr. Aladar Renyi. A special ode written by Emil Abranyi was beautifully recited in Hungarian by Maria Jaszai and in English by Erzsi Paulay, both actresses from the National Theater. Greetings were given by Countess Teleki, chairman of the Committee of Arrangements, and Miss Vilma Gliicklich, president of the National Suffrage Association. The official welcome of the Government was extended by His Excellency Dr. Bela de Jankovics, Minister of Education, in an eloquent speech, and that of the city by Dr. Stephen de Barczy, the Burgomaster, who was very imposing in the robes and insignia of his high office. The response for the Alliance was made by its secretary,

Dr. Anna Lindemann, in German and French. Dr. Alexander Geisswein, a prominent member of Parliament, made a strong address in favor of woman suffrage. These ceremonies were followed by the president's address of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, a summing up of the world situation in regard to woman suffrage, during which she said:

When the organization of the Alliance was completed in 1904, it was decided that national woman suffrage associations only should be admitted to membership and a nation was defined as a country which possesses the independent right to enfranchise its women. At that time eight such nations had woman suffrage associations. Now, nine years later, with the exception of the Spanish American Republics, there are in the entire world only seven without an organized woman suffrage movement. Only three of these are in Europe—Greece, Spain, and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. The remaining four are not well established self-governing nations, and Japan, which is more autocratic than democratic. We shall admit to membership the Chinese Woman Suffrage Association and the standard of the Alliance will then be set upon five continents. Twenty-five nations will be counted in its membership. Organized suffrage groups also exist on many islands of the seas. Like Alexander the Great, we shall soon be looking for other worlds to conquer! The North Star and the Southern Cross alike cast their benignant rays upon woman suffrage activities. Last winter when perpetual darkness shrouded the land of the Midnight Sun, women wrapped in furs, above the Polar Circle, might have been seen gliding over snow-covered roads in sledges drawn by reindeer on their way to suffrage meetings, from whence petitions went to the Parliament at Stockholm. At the same moment other women, in the midsummer of the southern hemisphere, protected by fans and umbrellas and riding in "rickshas," were doing the same thing under the fierce rays of a tropical sun; while petitions poured into the Parliament asking suffrage for the women of the Union of South Africa from every State and city of that vast country.

 

Since our last Congress not one sign has appeared the entire world around to indicate reaction. Not a backward step has been taken. On the contrary a thousand revelations give certain, unchallenged promise that victory for our great cause lies just ahead.... During the past winter woman suffrage bills have been considered by seventeen national Parliaments, four Parliaments of countries without full national rights and in the legislative bodies of twenty-nine States.... The largest gains for the past two years have been in the United States. Five western States and the Territory of Alaska have followed the example of the four former equal suffrage States and have enfranchised their women. Now 2,000,000 women are entitled to vote at all elections and are eligible to all offices, including that of President.... If France, Germany, Great Britain, Austria and Hungary could be set down in the middle of this territory, there would be enough left uncovered to equal the kingdom of Italy in size.

Mrs. Catt spoke of the trip of Dr. Jacobs and herself around the world and said: "We held public meetings in many of the towns and cities of four continents, of four large islands and on the ships of three oceans and had representatives of all the great races and nationalities in our audiences. We are now in touch with the most advanced development of the woman's movement in Egypt, Palestine, India, Burmah, China, Japan, Java and the Philippine and Hawaiian Islands, and also in Turkey and Persia, which we did not visit."

In telling of the momentous changes taking place in the East she said: "Behind the purdah in India, in the harems of Mohammedanism, behind veils and barred doors and closed sedan chairs there has been rebellion in the hearts of women all down the centuries.... We spoke with many women all over the East who had never heard of a 'woman's movement,' yet isolated and alone they had thought out the entire program of woman's emancipation, not excluding the vote...." She reviewed at length the position of women in Persia, in India and in Asia, the influence of the various religions and the signs of progress, paying a tribute to Mrs. Annie Besant, to the teachings of theosophy and especially to those of the Bahais. The terrible conditions for wage-earning women, the child labor and the nearly unrestricted white slave traffic in the far East were feelingly described and the address, which had been heard with almost breathless interest, concluded:

The women of the western world are escaping from the thraldom of the centuries.... Their liberation is certain; a little more effort, a little more enlightenment and it will come. Out of the richness of our own freedom must we give aid to these sisters of ours in Asia. When I review the slow, tragic struggle upward of the women of the West I am overwhelmed with the awfulness of the task these Eastern women have assumed. They must follow the vision in their souls as we have done and as other women before us have done. My heart yearns to give them aid and comfort. I would that we could strengthen them for the coming struggle. I would that we could put a protecting arm around these heroic women and save them from the cruel blows they are certain to receive. Alas! we can only help them to help themselves. Every Western victory will give them encouragement and inspiration, for our victories are their victories and their defeats are our defeats. For every woman of every tribe and nation, every race and continent, now under the heel of oppression we must demand deliverance.

On the Sunday evening after the opening of the convention the Royal Opera, a State institution, gave a special gala performance of Mozart's Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, with Cupid's Tricks, by the full ballet. This was complimentary to the visitors, as the regular season had closed, and the magnificent spectacle and splendid music were highly appreciated by the large audience, by none more than by a group of peasant women, who sat in one of the galleries with shawls over their heads, having walked fifty miles to attend the congress. Provision was made for their return home by train.

The formal organization for business took place Monday morning in the Redoute, a large, handsome convention hall, but hardly were the preliminaries over and luncheon finished when a long row of gaily decorated carriages was ready for a three hour drive around the beautiful city and its environs. At 7:30 the municipality gave an open air fête on Fisher Bastion, that noble piece of architecture which is the pride of Budapest. A writer describing the procession of officers and delegates, headed by Mrs. Catt, passing up the steps to receive the greetings of the city's high officials, said: "The entrance up the wide steps, between lines of attendants in picturesque uniforms, with the soft sunset glow and the lights coming out one by one in the city and on the river below, was like passing from real life into a land of enchantment." After the reception all assembled in the Court of Honor, where sparkling five-minute speeches were made by representatives from a dozen countries.

It was soon evident that the business of the convention would have to be confined to the morning hours, as the afternoons and evenings had to be given over to public speech making and social functions. There was long discussion in several sessions on establishing international headquarters and a press bureau, enlarging the monthly paper, Jus Suffragii, and changing the place of its publication. After most of the delegates had expressed opinions the whole matter was left to the board of officers. Miss Martina Kramers, Netherlands, declined to stand for re-election to the office of recording secretary and the editorship of the paper and a standing vote of thanks was given "for her seven years' hard work, with the hope that her name will never be forgotten in the International Suffrage Alliance and that she will always be appreciated as the founder of Jus Suffragi.^[5] Miss Chrystal Macmillan, Mrs. Marie Stritt and Mme. Marie Verone reported that the book Woman Suffrage in Practice, which they had been requested at the Stockholm meeting to prepare, was finished and the English edition ready for this convention; the French and German editions would be published in a few weeks.

The treasurer, Mrs. Stanton Coit, made a detailed and acceptable report and said that, with new headquarters, a paid secretary, an enlarged newspaper and many publications, 2,000 pounds would be necessary for the next two years. Pledges were made for 2,510 pounds ($12,350).^[6]

Mrs. Catt having served as president nine years earnestly desired to retire in favor of a woman from another country but at a meeting of the presidents of all the auxiliaries she was unanimously and strongly urged to reconsider her wish. She reluctantly did so and was elected by acclamation. The delegates decided that the ten persons receiving the highest number of votes should constitute the officers of the Alliance and the board itself should apportion their special offices. Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. Coit, Miss Furuhjelm, Miss Bergman and Mrs. Lindemann were re-elected. The five new officers selected were Mrs. DeWitt Schlumberger, France; Miss Schwimmer, Hungary; Miss Macmillan, Great Britain; Mrs. Stritt, Germany; Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, United States.

The persistent requests that the Board should and should not endorse the "militant"? movement in Great Britain, which had assumed serious proportions, caused it to recommend the following resolution which was adopted without dissent: 'Resolved: That as the International Woman Suffrage Alliance stands pledged by its constitution to strict neutrality on all questions concerning national policy or tactics, its rules forbid any expression favoring or condemning 'militant' methods. Be it further resolved: That since riot, revolution and disorder have never been construed into an argument against man suffrage, we protest against the practice of the opponents of woman suffrage to interpret 'militancy' employed by the minority in one country as an excuse for withholding the vote from the women of the world." At another time Mrs. Cobden Sanderson of Great Britain, speaking as a fraternal delegate, eulogized the self-sacrifice of the "militants" as the principal factor in the movement, and Mrs. Catt, speaking from the chair, said that she would like to answer the assertion that it was only the "militant" women who were the martyrs. To the women who had made such protests had come the glory, whereas there were thousands who had given their lives to the cause whose names had never been heard. All down the centuries there had been heroines and martyrs and many of them had stood alone. She believed the movement owed a great debt to the "militant" women of Great Britain but they were only a part of it.

Mrs. Catt introduced and urged a resolution "to send from this congress a request to the Governments of all countries here represented to institute an international inquiry into the cause and extent of commercialized vice, and to ask the woman suffrage organizations in each country to petition their own Government to institute a national inquiry and to include women in the Commission." The resolution was unanimously adopted. Mrs. Catt was appointed to represent the Alliance at the approaching International White Slave Traffic Congress in London. A very able address, showing a thorough study of the question, was made by Mrs. Fawcett, who presided at the meeting held to discuss What Women Voters Have Done towards the Solution of this Problem.

The usual important reports of the progress in all the affiliated countries were presented and ordered published in the Minutes, where they filled over sixty pages. Miss Schwimmer in reporting for Hungary said:

At the time of the founding of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance there was nothing even approaching a feminist movement in Hungary, yet the recent Reform Bill which has just passed the two Houses includes a long and thorough explanation of the usefulness and need of woman suffrage and apologies on the part of the Government for not being able (owing to the present precarious political situation) to grant it. The marked inclination of the Government in favor of woman suffrage and the discussion which took place in the House afterwards, together with the fact that an amendment to include woman suffrage received more votes than any other moved, has given the whole question such an importance that it is no longer a matter of discussion as to whether our claims are justified or not, but only when shall they be granted?

 

The work accomplished by us since the Stockholm Congress has been in the main, as before, educational; propaganda by meetings, lectures at all seasons and in all places; the distribution of an immense quantity of leaflets and other printed matter and lectures by famous foreign suffragists. The most valuable and effective part of our work was that we took advantage of the meetings arranged by the coalition opposition parties, which include the Social Democratic and the Bourgeois-Radicals. They held hundreds in all parts of Hungary, many attended by six or eight thousand people, and in one in Budapest gathered an audience of 15,000. We tried to get a speaker of ours on every program. In spite of the militant opposition of the Social Democratic party and Radical leaders, we succeeded nearly every time in getting the floor, where we presented amendments to their resolutions, which, when the chairman was honest enough to put them to be voted on, were always enthusiastically carried.... About sixty societies for various purposes have declared their position by taking part officially in several of our public demonstrations.

A list was given of distinguished men who had become converted to woman suffrage. Men took a more prominent part in this convention than in any which had preceded, due principally to the very active Hungarian Men's League for Woman Suffrage, which included a number well known in political and intellectual life. The International Alliance of Men's Leagues conducted an afternoon session in the Pester Lloyd hall with the Hon. Georg de Lukacs of Hungary, its president, in the chair. What can Men Do to Help the Movement for Woman Suffrage? was discussed by Dr. C. V. Drysdale, Great Britain; Major C. V. Mansfeldt, Netherlands, and Dr. Andre de Maday, Hungary. On Thursday evening this International League held a mass meeting in the Academy of Music with rousing speeches for woman suffrage by Hermann Bahr, Austria; M. Du Breuil de St. Germain, France; Major Mansfeldt; Keir Hardie, Great Britain; Senator Mechelin, Finland; Dr. Vazsonyi, M. P., Hungary; Professor Wicksell, Sweden; Professor Gustav Szaszy-Schwartz, Hungary.

A crowded mass meeting addressed by women took place one evening in the Academy of Music, with Mrs. Catt presiding. Mrs. Stritt, president of the National Suffrage Association of Germany, spoke on Woman Suffrage and Eugenics; Mme. Maria Verone, a well known lawyer of Paris, made her impassioned address in French, and Dr. Gulli Petrini of Sweden spoke in French on Woman Suffrage and Democracy; Miss Schwimmer inspired the audience with Hungarian oratory; Miss Jane Addams of the United States gave a forceful address on Why the Modern Woman Needs the Ballot, and Dr. Shaw closed the meeting with an eloquent interpretation of the demand of women for the vote. One afternoon from 4 to 6 o'clock was devoted to a Young People's Meeting, addressed by delegates from eight countries. A forenoon was given to the discussion of the always vital question, What Relation Should Suffrage Organizations Bear toward Political Parties, led by Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell, Sweden, and Miss Courtney, Great Britain. A large audience heard one evening the Benefits of Woman Suffrage related by those who had been sent as official delegates from Governments that had given the vote to women, Mrs. Ovam, Miss Krog and Mrs. Spencer, and in supplementary speeches by Mrs. Jenny Forselius, member of Parliament from Finland: Miss A. Maude Royden, Great Britain; Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, United States, whose topic was New Mothers of a New World. A resumé of all these addresses was made in Hungarian by Vilma Gliicklich. During the convention much of the interpreting in English, French and German was done by Mrs. Maud Nathan of the United States, who also made an address in the three languages.

On the last day it seemed almost as if the men had taken possession of the congress, for they had secured the convention hall for the afternoon meeting, but the women did not like to discourage such exceptional interest. Woman Suffrage and Men's Economic, Ethical and Political Interest in it was discussed by Professor Emanuel Beke, Hungary; Dr. Emil von Hoffmansthal, Austria; Frederick Nathan and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, United States. Vigorous speeches were made by Malcolm Mitchell, Great Britain; Leo Gassman, Germany; the Rev. Benno Haypal, and Alexander Patay, Hungary. The hall was restored to the women at 5 o'clock for their final program under the general topic, How may women still bound by ancient custom, tradition and prejudice be awakened to a realization that these new times demand new duties and responsibilties? How to Reach the Home Woman, Mrs. Gisela Urban, Austria; Mrs. Irma V. Szirmay, Mrs. von Fürth, Hungary; How to Reach the Church Woman, Mme. Jane Brigode, Belgium, Mme. Girardet-Vielle, Switzerland; How to Reach the Society Woman, Miss Royden, Mme. Schlumberger; How to Reach the Woman of Higher Education, Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict, United States; How to Reach the Wage-earning Woman, Miss Isabella O. Ford, Mrs. Clinny Dryer, Great Britain; How to Reach the Woman Social Worker, Miss Addams.

At the last business session the convention placed on record its appreciation of the unsurpassed hospitality shown by the Hungarians. The delegates from this country expressed the pleasure it had been to welcome the women of all nations and the inspiration that had been received. The president, Mrs. Catt, asked them to part with the intention of coming to the next conference, each with a victory in her own country to celebrate.

There were many luncheons, teas and dinners in beautiful private homes. The social entertainment which will be longest remembered was the evening trip down the Danube with supper and music on board, a happy, congenial party with three hours of the exquisite scenery along the shores. Usually suffrage conventions closed in a burst of oratory at a grand mass meeting but not so in this pleasure loving Hungarian city. The last evening was given over to a banquet which taxed the capacity of the big convention hall. There were toasts and speeches and patriotic songs, and the presentation of the international pin, set with jewels, by the ladies of Budapest to Miss Schwimmer. She said in a clever acceptance that the women had done what the men never had succeeded in doing; it was the desire of all Hungarians to make this city the resort of the world and the women of the world had been the first to come. "These ambassadors," she said, "who came, to quote the words of Mazzini, 'in the name of God and humanity,' will report to their countries the friendly reception they have met and will surely help the cause of international good feeling."

Several countries competed for the honor of the conference of the Alliance in 1915 and its regular convention in 1917. Mrs. May Wright Sewall, honorary president of the International Council of Women, presented an official invitation from the managers Of the Panama Pacific Exposition to be held in San Francisco in 1915, endorsed by the California Suffrage Association; the executive committee of the National Suffrage Association of Germany extended an urgent request for the conference and that of France for the congress. The answer was referred to the board, and it later accepted the invitations to Berlin and Paris. This had been the largest meeting of the Alliance. Never had the prospects seemed so favorable for accomplishing its objects; never had the fraternity among the women of the different nations seemed so close. When they parted with affectionate farewells and the bright hope of meeting two years hence in Berlin they little dreamed that it would be seven long years before they came together again; that during this time the world would be devastated by the most terrible war in history and that the task must be once more commenced of developing among the women of the nations the spirit of confidence, friendship and cooperation.

 

EIGHTH CONFERENCE OF THE ALLIANCE.

On call of its president, Mrs, Carrie Chapman Catt of the United States of America, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was summoned to its Eighth congress June 6-12, 1920, in Geneva, Switzerland, seven instead of the usual two years after the last one. The reason for the long interim was given in the opening sentences of the president's adress on the first day: "It is seven years since last we met. In memory we live again those happy days of friendly camaraderie in Budapest. All the faces were cheerful. On every side one heard joyous laughter among the delegates and visitors. Every heart was filled with buoyant hopes and every soul was armored with dauntless courage. We had seen our numbers grow greater and our movement stronger in many lands and here and there the final triumph had already come.... Alas, those smiling, shining days seem now to have been an experience in some other incarnation, for the years which lie between are war-scarred and tortured and in 1920 there is not a human being in the world to whom life is quite the same as in 1913 ... So we do not come smiling to Geneva as to Budapest."

On Sunday morning, June 6, for the first time in the history of Geneva a woman spoke in the National Church, the Cathedral of St. Peter, and standing in the pulpit of Calvin Miss A. Maude Royden of Great Britain preached in French and English to an audience that filled the ancient edifice to the doors. That morning at 9 o'clock Father Hall, sent by the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities from England for the purpose, delivered a sermon to the congress at a special mass in Notre Dame.^[7] In the afternoon a reception was given by Mile. Emilie Gourd, president of the Swiss National Suffrage Association, in the lovely garden, Beau Sejour. At a public meeting in the evening at Plainpalais, M. J. Mussard, president of the Canton of Geneva; Mme. Chaponnière Chaix, president of the Swiss National Council of Women, and Mile. Gourd gave addresses of welcome, to which responses were made by Miss Annie Furuhjelm, Finland; Mme. De Witt Schlumberger, France, and Mrs. Anna Lindemann, Germany, officers of the Alliance. Mrs. Catt then delivered her president's address. She described the physical, mental and moral chaos resulting from the war, the immense problems now to be solved, and said: "For the suffragists of the world a few facts stand forth with great clarity. The first is that war, the undoubted original cause of the age-old subjection of women the world around; war, the combined enemy of their emancipation, has brought to the women of many lands their political freedom!"

Mrs. Catt showed how the suffrage had come in some countries where no effort had been made for it, while in others where women had worked the hardest they were still disfranchised, and she gave a scathing review of the situation in the United States, where it had been so long withheld. She paid eloquent tributes to Susan B. Anthony, a founder of the Alliance, and to Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, who had helped to found it and had attended every congress but had died the preceding year. She pointed out to the enfranchised delegates the great responsibility that had been placed in their hands and through it the vast power they would have in re-creating the world and said: "I believe had the vote been granted to women twenty-five years ago, their national influence would have so leavened world politics that there would have been no world war." Among the many objects for the Alliance to accomplish she named the following: (1) Stimulate the spread of democracy and through it avoid another world war; (2)Discourage revolution by demonstrating that change may be brought about through peaceful political methods; (3) Encourage education and enlightenment throughout the world; (4) Keep the faith in self-government alive when it fails to meet expectations. Methods for achieving these results were suggested and it was impressed on the younger women that this would be their task, as the older ones had practically finished their work. This address of surpassing eloquence closed with these words:

God's order will come again to the world's stricken, unhappy, much-suffering people. It will come because the divine law of evolution never ceases to operate and the destiny of the race leads eternally on without pause. So much sacrifice and sorrow as the war has cost the world can not have been endured in vain.... As I view world politics the only possible hope for the happiness, prosperity and permanent peace of the world lies in the thorough democratization of all governments. There can be no democratization which excludes women and no safe or sound democracy which is not based upon an educated, intelligent electorate. Nor is it enough to establish democracy in individual nations—it must be extended to world politics. The old militarism must go and with it the old diplomacy, with its secret treaties, distrust and intrigues. No League of Nations can abolish war unless every government in the world is based on democracy.

In our home countries we should urge support of every movement for the extension of popular education, foster every agency which helps men and women to think for themselves, promote every endeavor to maintain honest elections, judicially conducted campaigns and high ideals in parties and parliaments, for democracy succeeds when and where independence and intelligence are greatest.

A few of the delegates wished to disband the Alliance; a few others desired to change the character of its objects, but by an overwhelming majority it was voted to continue it along the original lines, although broadened, until the women of all countries were enfranchised. The Congress was held in the Maison Communale de Plainpalais, the large town hall in a suburb of Geneva, and here one evening its municipality gave a reception to the members. The shady gardens and sunny terrace were the scene of many social gatherings.^[8] The congress opened with a roll call of the suffrage victories and the responses showed the almost unbelievable record that twenty countries had enfranchised their women during the years of the war! The Official Report was edited by Miss Chrystal Macmillan, recording secretary of the International Alliance, and the Introduction was a graphic review, which said in part:

"Despite the difficulties of travel and the fact that only three months' notice had been given the gathering at Geneva was more widely representative than any previous meeting. Women were present from thirty-six countries. Of the twenty-six affiliated with the Alliance at the time of the last meeting, in 1913, the auxiliaries of nineteen showed their continued vitality by sending fully accredited delegates to Geneva. Representatives were also present from the former auxiliaries in Austria and Germany, who were accorded full membership rights. The Russian national president, a fugitive from her country, was unable to come but sent her greetings. The Belgian society abstained from taking part and from the Polish and Portuguese auxiliaries no answer was received.

"Four countries, Greece, Spain, Argentina and Uruguay, sent delegates from newly formed National Suffrage Societies, which were accepted in the Alliance. In addition there were present women from Armenia, the Crimea, Lettonia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and Ukrainia. For the first time women from India and Japan came to tell of the beginnings of the organized movement among the women of the East. It was only the difficulties of travel which prevented the delegates who had started on their journeys from China, Egypt and Palestine from arriving in time for the congress. For the first time more than half the voting delegates represented countries in which women had the full suffrage. The consequent increased political importance of the congress was recognized by the governments of the world, of which eighteen in Europe appointed official representatives, and the United States of America and Uruguay of South America. The Secretariat of the League of Nations also sent a representative....

"The outstanding feature of the first business sesion was the announcement of particulars by representatives of the many nations which had given the political and suffrage and elibility to women between 1913 and 1920—Austria, British East Africa, Canada, Crimea, Czecho-Slovakia, Denmark, Esthonia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Iceland, Lettonia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Poland, Rhodesia, Russia, Sweden, Ukrainia and six more of the United States. It was announced that women sit as members of Parliament in the majority of these countries, while large numbers are members of municipal councils. In the United States of America the Federal Suffrage Amendment had passed both Houses of Congress and had been ratified by thirty-five of the necessary thirty-six States. Serbia, Belgium and Roumania had granted Municipal suffrage to women and the Zionists of Palestine and the Commune of Fiume had given to them full equal suffrage and eligibility.... t was decided to arrange at the next congress a session at which only enfranchised women should speak.... The Catholic Woman Suffrage Society of Great Britain was accepted as a member of the Alliance....

"Each of the three evening meetings, besides that of Sunday, which were all crowded and enthusiastic, was characteristic of a different aspect of the present development of the suffrage movement. On Monday, a special feature was the speeches of five women members of Parliament—Helen Ring Robinson (State Senate), Colorado; Elna Münch, Denmark; Annie Furuhjelm, Finland; Lady Astor, Great Britain; Tekla Kauffman, Wurtemberg... In all, nine women members of Parliament attended the Congress. The others, who spoke at later meetings, were Frau Burian and Adelheid Popp of Austria; Mme. Petkavetchaite of Lithuania and Adele Schrieber-Krieger, whose election to the German Reichstag was announced during the Congress. On Wednesday at the great meeting in the Hall of the Reformation, three-minute speeches were given by representatives of each of the enfranchised countries in the Alliance. Yet another new aspect was illustrated by the meeting of Thursday, addressed by women from India and China. The speeches showed how similar are the difficulaies of the women of both the East and the West and how much new ground has still to be broken before the object of the Alliance is achieved."

The forenoons were devoted to business meetings relating to the future work of the Alliance and they were in session simultaneously in different rooms in the great building—Women and Party Politics, Legal Status of Women, Civil Equality, Economic Value of Domestic Work of Wives and Mothers, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Single Moral Standard, Protection of Childhood— questions affecting the welfare of all society in all lands, pressing for solution and in all practically the same. The afternoons were given largely to the reports from many countries.^[9] The Woman's Leader, organ of the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of Great Britain, in its account of the Congress said:

The effect of these reports was intensely dramatic, mingled, as it inevitably was, with the memories of the strange and bitter conditions under which the change had come. In some of the countries that had been at war enfranchisement came in the midst of revolution, riot and disaster; in others it came fresh and new with the beginning of their independent national life and almost as a matter of course. "Our men and women struggled together for our national freedom," said delegate after delegate from the new States of Europe, "and so when any of us were enfranchised we both were." The report on the election of women to national or municipal bodies was deeply interesting and in many respects surprising. Germany easily surpassed other countries in this respect, having had 39 women members in the last National Assembly, 155 in the Parliaments of the Federated States and 4,000 on local and municipal bodies. In Denmark the record of success that followed the election of women was astonishing. "We have done," said the spokeswoman, "what we set out to do; we have introduced equal pay and equal marriage laws; our equality is a fact." Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the Alliance, welcomed each new representative in the name of all the countries, and, although the victories had been won in times of stress and war, the rejoicing was without rivalry, for in the Congress from the first day until the last no sign or mark of ill-feeling or enmity was to be found. Not that the delegates forgot or disregarded the recent existence of the war; no one who saw them would suppose for a moment that they were meeting in any blind or sentimental paradise of fools. Their differences and. their nations' differences were plain in their minds and they neither forgot nor wished to forget the ruined areas, the starving children and the suffering peoples of the world. They met differing perhaps profoundly in their national sentiment, their memories and their judgments but determined to agree where agreement was to be found; to understand where understanding could be arrived at and to cooperate with the very best of their will and their intelligence in assuring the future stability of the world.

An important report was that of the Headquarters Committee, consisting of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, first vicepresident of the Alliance, Mrs. Adela Stanton Coit, treasurer, and Miss Macmillan. Mrs. Coit was chairman the first two years and Mrs. Fawcett the rest of the time. After the Congress at Budapest in 1913 the official monthly paper Jus Suffragii was removed from Rotterdam to London and the international headquarters established there. For the next seven years the three members of the committee resident in London held regular meetings, seventy altogether, consulting Mrs. Catt by letter or cable when necessary. Miss Mary Sheepshanks was editor and headquarters secretary. "She occupied that post with great acceptance till 1919," said the report, "when it was with much regret that her resignation was accepted. Mrs. Elizabeth Abbott was appointed to the place, where in connnection with the preparations for the present Congress her organizing capacity has been of special value." Miss Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary was appointed press secretary to furnish the news to the international press but her work had hardly begun when the war broke out and she resigned the position to take up work for peace.

The report told of the meeting of the international officers and a number of the national presidents which took place in London in July, 1914, to make arrangements for the Congress in Berlin the next year. Among the many social receptions given were one in the House of Commons and one at the home of former Prime Minister Balfour. Mrs. Catt had just started on her homeward voyage when the war began. The officers in London at once issued a Manifesto in the name of the Alliance and presented it to the British Foreign Office and the Ammbassadors and Ministers in London, which after pointing out the helplessness of women in this supreme hour said: "We women of twenty-six countries, having banded ourselves together in the International Woman Suffrage Alliance with the object of obtaining the polit ical means of sharing with men the power which shapes the fate of nations, appeal to you to leave untried no method of conciliation or arbitration for arranging international differences which may help to avert deluging half the civilized world in blood." They decided to cooperate with the British branch of the Alliance in a public meeting, which was held August 3 with Mrs. Fawcett in the chair, and a resolution similar to the above was adopted. In the next issue of the International News, when war had been declared, Mrs. Fawcett in her official capacity wrote:

We are faced by the disruption, the animosity, the misunderstanding caused by war but notwithstanding the cruel strain we must firmly resolve to hold our International Alliance together. We must believe all through that good is stronger than evil, that justice and mercy are stronger than hatred and destruction, just as life is stronger than death. We women who have worked together for a great cause have hopes and ideals in common; these are indestructible links binding us together. We have to show that what unites us is stronger than what separates us. Between many of us there is also the further link of personal friendship cemented by many years of work together. We must hold on through all difficulties to these things which are good in themselves and must therefore be a strong help to us all through these days of trial.

"In this spirit the Headquarters Committee has endeavored to carry out its task," said its report, "and it has so far succeeded that it is in a position today to lay down its work without any society having been lost to the Alliance and with a considerable group of countries never before associated with it now seeking affiliation." The great difficulty of getting the paper into the various countries was described but it was accomplished; the paper never missed an issue; it remained absolutely neutral and the number of subscribers largely increased. It was the one medium through which the women of the warring nations came in touch during the four and a half years of the conflict. All through the war it had news of some kind from the various countries showing that their women were still engaged in organized work for many useful purposes. It was evident that in practically all of them they were demanding that women should have a voice in the government.

The headquarters cooperated with other international organizations in forming the International Woman's Relief Committee and the work was conducted in its rooms. More than a thousand foreign girls were sent or taken to their countries and hundreds of British, French and Belgian women brought from Germany and Belgium to London. The work among Belgian refugees would require many pages to describe.

Mrs. Fawcett and Mrs. Catt were preparing to send a deputation from the Alliance to the Peace Conference to ask for a declaration for woman suffrage when the National Woman Suffrage Association of France, through its president, Mme. DeWitt Schlumberger, took the initiative and called for the national associations of the allied countries to send representatives to Paris to bring pressure on it. They were cordially received by the members of the Conference and a pronouncement in favor of the political equality of women and eligibility to the secretariat was placed in the constitution of the League of Nations, which attracted the attention of the world.

When the plan of holding the Congress of the Alliance at Berlin in 1915 had to be given up Holland sent an urgent invitation for that year but its acceptance was not considered feasible. The Swedish Auxiliary wanted it held at the time and place of the Peace Conference but this was found to be inadvisable. The majority of the officers and auxiliaries in the various countries wished to have a congress the next spring after the Armistice but there proved to be insurmountable obstacles. Toward the end of 1910 an invitation was accepted from the suffrage societies in Spain to come to Madrid in 1920. Preparations were under way when local opposition developed which made it necessary to abandon the plan. Switzerland had already invited the congress and it gladly went to Geneva.

In the report of Mrs. Coit, the treasurer, she said:

You will remember that at Budapest in 1913 a sum of about 2,000 pounds was raised, mostly by promises of yearly donations for the period of two years. This sum was to finance headquarters and the paper till we met in Berlin in 1915. In August, 1914, not even all the first instalments had been received, and from then on, owing to war conditions, it became impossible for some of our biggest donors to redeem their pledges. By the beginning of 1917 we found ourselves with an empty exchequer and facing the possibility of closing down our work. It was then that help came from our auxiliary in the United States. Mrs. Catt, with the help of her many devoted friends, raised a sum of $4,333, which was placed at our disposal and has enabled the Alliance to keep going. When speaking of the United States’ help I wish to make special mention of the splendid work for the Alliance by Miss Clara M. Hyde, private secretary for Mrs. Catt. To her incessant interest and energy it is due that the number of honorary associates in the U. S. A. now is at least three times as high as in any other country; also she has quite trebled the number of subscribers to the International News in the States. Her devoted work is an example of what can be done by a single national auxiliary to further the development of the Alliance, and I recommend her example for universal imitation.

The United States Auxiliary continued to add to the above sum and from May, 1916, to May, 1920, it sent in membership dues, subscriptions to the paper and donations $9,337. Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, president of the Pennsylvania Suffrage Association, was responsible for collecting over $5,000 of this amount.

The money for the Congress in Geneva, about $3,500, was raised by a British committee of which Miss Rosamond Smith was chairman and Mrs. Pethick Lawrence treasurer. To this fund the United States, which had not suffered from the war to the extent of European countries, was a large contributor. At the close of the congress there were no funds on hand for the coming year and the delegates from all countries were feeling the effects of the war financially. At this critical moment Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick of the United States, corresponding secretary of the Alliance, made a contribution of $5,000, and a little later the Leslie Commission added $4,000. This with individual subscriptions raised the amount of about $15,000 and guaranteed the expenses for resuming and continuing the work of the Alliance.

From the organization of the Alliance in Berlin in 1904 Mrs. Catt had been the president and at no election had there been another candidate. Her strong desire to relinquish the office was overruled at Budapest. She went to Geneva with the positive determination not to accept it again but she faced an equally determined body of delegates. Not only was she supported by all from the Allied Countries, as they were known during the war, but she was equally acceptable to those from the Central Countries. She was literally compelled to retain the office.

Nominations for the other officers were made by ballot and submitted to the convention and the ten receiving the highest number of votes constituted the board. They were as follows: Mme. DeWitt Schlumberger (France), Miss Chrystal Macmillan (Great Britain), Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell (Sweden), Mrs. Corbett Ashby (Great Britain), Dr. Margherita Ancona (Italy), Mrs. Anna Lindemann (Germany), Miss Eleanor Rathbone (Great Britain), Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick (U. S. A.), Mme. Girardet-Vielle (Switzerland), Mrs. Adele Schreiber-Krieger (Germany). Most of them were officers of the National Association in their own countries. Miss Rathbone was also a member of the city council of Liverpool.

Among the twenty-two sent as Government delegates were Viscountess Astor, member of the British House of Commons; Mrs. Marie Stritt, city councillor of Dresden, and Mrs. Josephus Daniels, wife of the Secretary of the Navy, U. S. A. Invited members were present from nine countries, including ten from India, one from Japan and the wife of the Tartar president of the Parliament of Crimea. There were fraternal delegates from six international associations; from associations in nearly every country in Europe (fourteen in Great Britain) and from South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Uruguay. Greetings were sent from associations in many countries including China.

A number of the resolutions adopted have been foreshadowed in this report of the proceedings. Others were for the equal status of women with men on legislative and administrative bodies; full personal and civil rights for married women, including the right to their earnings and property; equal guardianship of their children by mothers; that the children of widows without provisions shall have the right to maintenance by the State paid to the mothers; that children born out of wedlock shall have the same right to maintenance and education from the father as legitimate children, and the mother the right of maintenance while incapacitated. Resolutions called for the same opportunities for women as for men for all kinds of education and training and for entering professions, industries, civil service positions and performing administrative and judicial functions, and demanded that there shall be equal pay for equal work; that the right to work of women, married or unmarried, shall be recognized and that no special regulations shall be imposed contrary to the wishes of the women themselves. A higher moral standard for both men and women was called for and various resolutions were adopted against traffic in women, regulations of vice differentiating against women and State regulation of prostitution.

The Congress took a firm position on the League of Nations and its recognition of women in the following resolution: "The women of thirty-one nations assembled in congress at Geneva, convinced that in a strong Society of Nations based on the principles of right and justice lies the only hope of assuring the future peace of the world, call upon the women of the whole world to direct their will, their intelligence and their influence towards the development and the consolidation of the Society of Nations on such a basis, and to assist it in every possible way in its work of securing peace and good will throughout the world."

A resolution was adopted that a conference of representative women be summoned annually by the League of Nations for the purpose of considering questions relating to the welfare and status of women; the conference to be held at the seat of the League, if possible, and the expenses paid by the League. The Board instructed Mrs. Ashby Corbett to arrange a deputation to the League of Nations to present resolutions and to ask for the calling of the conference as soon as possible.^[10]

On the last day of the Congress from 5 to 7 o'clock the State Council of the Canton and the Municipal Council of Geneva gave an official reception and tea to the delegates and visitors. The resolutions of thanks for the assistance and courtesies received from committees and individuals filled two printed pages. The Woman's Leader thus closed its account: 'The immense hospitality of Geneva and of the Swiss Consulate, the superb weather and the beautiful excursions by land and lake were above all praise.... Taking the Conference as a whole, with its concrete work and its general spirit, it is clear that it marks a new step forward. A new force has come into the politics of almost all the world. It is a force inspired at present with good will, a humanitarian and an internationalizing force, drawing together the thoughtful and disinterested women of all countries. It is a force that the world has need of and no Government should be so blind as to ignore it."

 

1. History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, page 184.
2. Delegates and alternates present besides those already mentioned were Misses L. G. Heymann and Marta Zietz, Germany; Mrs, Stanton Coit, Great Britain; Mrs. Henrietta von Loenen de Bordes, Mrs. Hengeveld Garritson, Miss C. C. A. Van Dorp, Netherlands; Mrs. Vibetha Salicath, Miss Eline Hansen, Mrs. Charlotte Eilersgaard, Miss Rasmussen, Denmark; Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell, Mrs. Frigga Carlberg, Miss Jenny Wallerstedt, Sweden; Miss Fredrikke Mörck, Miss Marie Scharlenberg, Norway; Mrs. Saulner, Switzerland; Mrs. Henry Dobson, Australia; Miss Rosika Schwimmer, Hungary; Mrs. Mary Wood Swift, Miss Belle Kearney, Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, Miss Lucy E. Anthony, Miss Nettie Lovisa White, Mrs, Lydia Kingsmill Commander, United States.
3. The reports from the various countries prepared for this congress filled fifty-seven pages of the printed report and fully justified Mrs. Catt's statement.
4. The committee which had been appointed to prepare for the congress and had been working for many months beforehand consisted of the Executive Committee of the central board of the National Suffrage Association and the presidents of sub-committees formed for different purposes. Miss Signe Bergman acted as president, Miss Axianne Thorstenson as vice-president, Miss Anna Frisell as treasurer, Miss Nini Kohnberger and Miss Elise Carlson as secretaries. Mrs, Virgin was at the head of the Finance Committee. The work of the Press Committee was directed by Mrs. Else Kieen. Mrs. Lily Laurent was at the head of the Committee on Localities. Mrs. Lizinski Dyrssen headed the Committee for Festivities. Mrs. Ezaline Boheman was the head of the Information Bureau. Miss Lamm and Miss Anden directed the work of the thirty university students who served as pages and whose kindness and swift and silent service none will ever forget. At the head of the Travelling Committee was Dr. Malin Wester-Halberg, who arranged the journey to Lapland, gave information about all excursions, etc.
5. International headquarters were established in London, the paper was greatly enlarged and published there under the title,Jus Suffragii, International Woman Suffrage News, and Miss Mary Sheepshanks was appointed editor, a post which she filled most satisfactorily during the following six troubled years.
6. Because of the war which devastated Europe for the next five years these pledges could not be kept and the Alliance did not meet again until 1920. Meanwhile the United States contributed enough so that the London headquarters were kept open and the paper did not miss an issue.
7. The English church of Geneva also for the first time admitted a woman to its pulpit, which was occupied on the following Sunday, June 13, by Miss Edith Picton Turberville of Great Britain.
8. Among the many entertainments during the congress were a reception given by the British delegation; a motor excursion by invitation of Mrs. McCormick and the American delegates; a dinner party at Hotel Beau Rivage by Lady Astor for British and American delegates; a delightful "tea" by the French delegation and a garden party by M. and Mme. Thuillier-Landry. Excursions were arranged by the Geneva Committee and visits to the schools, museums, parks and endless points of attraction in this most interesting city.
9. These valuable accounts of the status of women in the various countries were published in full in the 252-page Report of the Congress.
10. They called on Sir Alec Drummond, head of the Secretariat, in London He received them cordially but said it would be impossible for the League to undertake such expenses and advised them to appoint a committee to act as a source of communication between the League and the Alliance. Thenceforth the League recognized the Alliance as an authority and accepted its recommendation to place Mrs. Anna B. Wicksell on its Mandates Commission and Miss Henni Forchhammer on its White Slave Traffic Commission. These women had already been sent to the League meetings by Sweden and Denmark as alternate delegates.