Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/846

&3 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE at that time seemed to many well nigh insurmountable, our Interna- tional 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 misunderstand- ing; 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 ob- serve 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 experi- enced 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 bril- liant 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 un- sparingly 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 na- tion 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.