manhood.[1] This resolution was unanimously adopted by the delegates after strong addresses, and Miss Anthony, Dr. Shaw, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Avery and Miss Blackwell were deputized to ask a hearing and present it to the American Medical Association meeting in St. Paul at this time. That body allowed them ten minutes to state their earnest wish that it would endorse the resolution but it took no action.
Miss Anthony had consented to act as chairman of the Congressional Committee and her report was heard with deep interest. Her work during the year was upon two distinct lines, the old familiar petition to Congress to pass the 16th Amendment granting full suffrage to women, and another brought about by new conditions—a petition that the word "male" should not be inserted in the electoral clause of the constitutions proposed by Congress for Hawaii and Porto Rico. These petitions were secured from every State and Territory, a tremendous work, and were laid before the members of Congress from each State. The most interesting petition for the amendment was from Wyoming, where one sheet was signed by every State officer, several U. S. officials and other prominent citizens. They had signed in duplicate several petitions and thus Miss Anthony had an autograph copy with her. The work of securing this petition was done chiefly by Mrs. Joseph M. Cary, wife of the Senator. Miss Anthony was chairman also of the Committee on Convention Resolutions and believed strongly that to present the question of woman suffrage to conventions of various kinds and secure resolutions from them was an efficacious means of propaganda. Her inter-
- ↑ Whereas, Judge William Howard Taft and the Philippine Commissioners in a telegram to Secretary Root dated January 17, 1901, affirm that ever since November, 1898,the military authorities in Manila have subjected women of bad character to "certified examination," and General MacArthur in his recent report does not deny this but defends it; and whereas the Hawaiian government has taken similar action; therefore Resolved, That we earnestly protest against-the introduction of the European system of State-regulated vice in the new possessions of the United States for the following reasons: 1. To subject women of bad character to regular examinations and furnish them with official health certificates is contrary to good morals and must impress both our soldiers and the natives as giving official sanction to vice. 2. It is a violation of justice to apply to vicious women compulsory medical measures that are not applied to vicious men. 3. Official regulation of vice, while it lowers the moral tone of the community, everywhere fails to protect the public health. Examples were given from Paris, garrison towns of England and Switzerland, and St. Louis, the only city in the United States that bad ever tried the system.
