conclusion on the far away Pacific coast was not even recorded in historical minutes. But more than this, a fitting statue, heroic in proportions, as was this dusky Joan of Arc, in leadership of dangers in the unexplored wilderness of the western New World, can nowhere be found in the denuded reservation of Forest Park, sacred to mythological Cyclops and Apollos, and preservative in marble and bronze, of the modern hero in tailor-made garments, whose attire precludes the thought of encounter with beasts formidable in dimensions or birds of prey, disastrous to aught save collar and coat tail. Congressional recognition ended with the Louisiana Purchase, since woman not only proved a failure again, but attempted a spirit of caste in this Jeffersonian jubilee, which roped off the woman's building to the exclusive use of the board and limited its open door to pink teas and swell social functions for the "noveaux riche'' and swagger set, which was only cut short by the peremptory challenge of a spirited Congressman from Minnesota, who ordered ropes down, the building recognized as consecrated to the spirit of national "camaraderie" for rich and poor alike, and directed the service of the teapot to be extended to the humble washerwoman if she passed that way, or the cup of fragrant oolong handed out to the patient toiler from the ranks, with a like deference as was shown to the silken-robed member of the "dilettante." ܙ Again, the official organizations directing this woman question represented in the national suffrage and temperance bodies have given no evidence thus far of improvement on masculine methods; rather have they discounted the tenure-of-office feature by making it perpetual. The shibboleth of "Equal rights to all and special privileges to none" is certainly not exemplified in the governments of those combinations. "Life tenure of a good thing when you see it" seems to be the motto for both. A clique, called the "nominating committee," rules the annual gatherings, which year by year brings in the same official list, and any attempt to disrupt this organized tyranny is met with instant rebuke. At a recent gathering of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in Los Angeles, Cal., three States timidly ventured to offer protest, and were at once choked off by the vehement war cry of the vicepresident at large, who has nibbled the rich grazing in pastures fair and at the public contribution crib, in one capacity or another, for a period of thirty-seven years. Its first president held office over twenty-six years, until her death, at a salary of $5,000 per annum; private secretary, $1,500; and all the plums, perquisites, transportation by sea and land over both continents, which so commanding a position implies. Her successor, in nowise her equal, is now on the eleventh lap of the running, with like patronage and power, and if rotation in office is to be an educational process for the less favored majority, it is certainly getting no schooling through this close-corporation board. The suffrage association is a like limited combine, which perennially appears with the same roster of officials, who exhibit no waning thirst for the honors and emoluments of public office. Its manipulation of campaigns in the various States wherein suffrage was the battle cry has resulted in its defeat in every instance, not because of lack of interest or of audiences, but because of injection of national management, which arrogated to itself all the fat pickings in sight and relegated to State workers the crumbs that were left. The legislature of California in 1896 passed the suffrage amendment with but little opposition and no outside help, but the vote on the amendment by the State was overwhelmingly lost by 30,000 majority because of this and the attempt of both temperance and suffrage organizations to force party lines and injure vested rights which were safeguarded in its constitution. Oregon has just issued a like mandate by 50,000 majority, while the four States granting suffrage, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, had no assistance save through the party organizations in power, Democratic, Populist, and Mormon. We have just passed through an exciting national campaign wherein a third term for the Presidency was again thrashed over, and again decisively repudiated. What message would these two self-perpetuating bodies bring to the American people if the power vested in them to nominate and elect a feminine occupant of the White House? Should we have a life tenure President, whom only death could part from the executive chair, or a liberal exponent of George Washington's message of warning to those of his day and the generations that were to followthat two terms in official life were the limit for both honors and safety, to occupant and Republic alike? And finally, gentlemen, I refer you to the decision of the United States Supreme Court (21 Wall., p. 162), of date October, 1874, which settles the status of the resolution before you, makes nugatory and void the efforts of the suffrage leaders, and consigns to wastebasket and oblivion the hard labor on petitions of innumerable followers in the rank and file of their numbers. You have seen the attempt of a million feminine signers to force the entering wedge of that dangerous foe to liberty, a union of church and state; you are now confronted with an exhibit 500,000 strong which seeks the reversion of the mandate of the United States Supreme Court by an act of Congress, and invites you to record the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives as on a par with their lack of legal knowledge and their want of information in reference to the test made for them, by one of their own sex, thirty-six years ago. In 1874 Mrs. Virginia Minor, president of the Missouri Woman's Suffrage Association, brought suit against the register of voters in St. Louis for denial of her right to be recorded as a legal voter. The case was carried to the United States Supreme Court, whose summing up, after long review, was "that there are no voters in the United States of its own creation; its officers are all elected directly or indirectly by state voters," and remanded Mrs. Minor to Missouri for the elucidation of her voting right or privilege. The conclusion of the whole matter is not the entrance of woman into the political world for the reformation of man's methods, but the regeneration of woman herself that those whom she sends forth into the maelstrom of life's great battle shall be so equipped mentally, morally, physically as to require no added force from her to hold mankind to paths of righteousness and peace. The mythology of the past is the moving-picture gallery of immortal truths, and none more pregnant of its vital apprehension of that source which nourishes into life the human race than its wonderful portrayal of the feminine. Woman, as pictured by the ancients, is the mysterious and incomprehensible temple within whose sacred laboratory is fashioned and wrought that most wondrous creation of all nature, the human soul and body, which they affirmed came forth a winged soul or a distorted creation, even as she was allied to the gods or yoked to the furies. Ralph Waldo Emerson, of our day, repeating the self-same truth, says: "When a man comes forth into life from the temple of his mother, the gate of gifts closes behind him." Jean Paul Richter, reiterating a like spiritual insight, affirms: "The clue of our identity, wander where we will, lies at the foot of the cradle." The wife of Euripides, when congratulated by a foreigner on the wisdom of her country's laws and its prestige in all that made for advancement, said with great dignity and emphasis: "We women of Greece give birth to men, not pigmies." Therein lies the solution of woman suffrage. (Thereupon, at 1.15 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned.) INDEX. Page. Allen, James Lane, signed writers' petition.. Amendment to Constitution. See Constitutional amendment. Resolutions in favor of woman suffrage.. Statement of A. E. Holder for.... Anthony, Susan B., woman suffrage resolution introduced for. Antisuffragists: Statement of Phoebe W. Couzins for.. Letter sent to members of the committee. Atherton, Gertrude, signed writers' petition.. Bacheller, Irving, signed writers' petition.. Australia, women have full political rights.. Bates, Edward, United States Attorney-General, aided entrance of women into 7,8 7 19 31 25 27 4 Biological aspects of women's rights, antisuffrage arguments . Boston, Mass., registration of women voters, antisuffrage arguments. 26, 29 Burnett, Frances Hodgson, signed writers' petition. California, failure to secure suffrage amendment in. Canada, suffrage is granted to spinsters and widows.. Carlin, Hon. Charles C., of Virginia, in re statements of antisuffragists.. Chase, Salmon P., Secretary of United States Treasury, aided entrance of women Clayton, Hon. H. D., of Alabama, query as to need of constitutional amend- Constitutional amendment: Necessity for.... Resolutions for. Couzins, Phoebe W., statement in opposition to woman suffrage. 9, 24 3,7,8 31 38 Declaration of Independence, more practicable when women vote. 9, 10 Denby, Hon. Edwin, of Michigan, query as to industrial conditions in Colorado. Equal pay for equal work...... Eight-hour law. See Hours of work. England grants all political rights except parliamentary suffrage...... Finland, women have full political rights.. Family life, evolution of.. Freeman, Mary Wilkins, signed writers' petition. Hawaii, supreme court justices of, signed petition.. Per cent of women voting in Colorado. Necessity for constitutional amendment.. Holden v. Hardy, decision in favor of an eight-hour day for miners Holder, Arthur E.. statement in behalf of American Federation of Labor. Holley, Marietta, signed writers' petition.... Page. 17 Full suffrage in.. -Suffrage granted through party organizations. Illinois: Effort to limit hours of labor... Strikes of women in knitting mills. Industry, women in. See Women in industry. Ireland, women have all political rights except parliamentary suffrage. Isle of Man, women have full political rights. Jewett, Sarah Orne, signed writers' petition. Johnston, Mary, signed writers' petition . Labor of women, injurious effect of unhealthful conditions. Laundries, effect of unlimited hours of work in... Lindsey, Judge Ben B., nominated and elected by women of Denver Literary Digest, quoted against suffrage 23 4, 19 10, 24, 29 25 13 12 21 23 34, 39 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, statement of Phoebe W. Couzins. Miller, Elizabeth Smith, delegate to first woman's rights convention. 4 22 Minor, Mrs. Virginia, suit of. 43 Mondell, Hon. Frank W., of Wyoming, introduced woman-suffrage resolution 3 National American Woman Suffrage Association, criticism of.. 42 National League for the Civic Education of Women, antisuffrage 36 National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, criticism by Phoebe W. |