Volume VI Part 74 (1/2)
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 auxiliarys.h.i.+p. 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.