The History of Woman Suffrage Volume VI Part 74

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 enfranchis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sociation through four committees: Finance, Miss Eline Hansen; Information, Miss Julie Laurberg; Press, Miss Sophie Alberti; Entertainment, Mrs. Johanne Munter. 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. Munter 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 Munic.i.p.al Council in the magnificent City Hall and a farewell supper by the Danish Suffrage a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociations 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociations 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 pa.s.sed 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sociation. 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 Glucklich, 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 princ.i.p.al address by Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, her biographer, and beautiful tributes by delegates of seven European countries and Canada expressing the debt of grat.i.tude 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 emanc.i.p.ation 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 emanc.i.p.ation 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 princ.i.p.al 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 Munic.i.p.al 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 const.i.tution 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 enfranchis.e.m.e.nt 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 s.p.a.cious 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 Ma.n.u.s gave much a.s.sistance. The Press Committee, Miss Johanna W. A. Naber, chairman, did excellent work in conjunction with a committee from the Amsterdam press a.s.sociation.... That the accounts throughout the world were so complete is due to this painstaking, able committee's a.s.sistance 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 ma.s.s 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 a.s.sociation 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 G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses 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 a.s.sociation 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 Sat.u.r.day night was held in the great Concert Hall. A gay a.s.sembly, 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 a.s.sociation 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 enfranchis.e.m.e.nt 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 enfranchis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.surance of coming victory so certain that we may imagine the n.o.ble 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 paean 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 Munic.i.p.al 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 a.s.sociations and to organize woman suffrage societies. The German a.s.sociation 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 pet.i.tion of 142,128 names has been presented to Parliament; deputations have waited upon the Government and been granted hearings.

A thorough a.n.a.lysis 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 cla.s.s, including ladies of the n.o.bility, 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 pa.s.sed 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 sh.o.r.es 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 a.s.sociations 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 Q. 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 Enfranchis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sembled 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 prevail 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 disenfranchis.e.m.e.nt, and they understood the influence which could be exerted through an international movement. There were occasional misunderstandings on account of the varied parliamentary procedure in different countries and because of the necessity for interpreting much that took place 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 a.s.sociations 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, pet.i.tions to the Parliament, circulating libraries, courses of lectures, house-to-house canva.s.sing, protests against paying taxes, ma.s.s 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 const.i.tuents, 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 const.i.tution; 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 regime." 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 ma.s.sacres and outrages when women are a.s.saulted 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 cla.s.ses 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 Morck 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. Munter 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 a.s.sociation 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 ent.i.tled to vote. It is calculated that 200,000 are yet excluded, although the tax is very small.... The object of our a.s.sociation 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 Munic.i.p.al 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.