Many changes for the better have been made during the last half century in the laws, written and unwritten, relating to women. Everybody approves of these changes now, because they have become accomplished facts. But not one of them would have been made to this day if it had been necessary to wait until the majority of women asked for it. The change now under discussion is to be judged on its merits. In the light of history the indifference of most women and the opposition of a few must be taken as a matter of course. It has no more rational significance than it has had in regard to each previous step of woman's progress.
Miss Anthony closed with an impassioned argument which profoundly moved both the committee and the audience. The chairman said that in all the years there had never been so dignified, logical and perfectly managed a hearing before the Judiciary, and several of its members corroborated this statement and assured the ladies present of a full belief in the justice of their cause. Yet neither the Senate nor the House Committee made any report or paid the slightest heed to these earnest and eloquent appeals.
112 The Sunday afternoon preceding the convention religious services were held in the theatre, which was crowded. The sermon was given by the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, from the text, "One shall chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight."
113 A most interesting account of that historic occasion may be found in the History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. I, p. 67.
114 Federal Suffrage is considered in Chapter I.
115 David B. Henderson, Ia.; George W. Ray, N. Y.; Case Broderick, Kan.; Thomas Updegraff, Ia.; James A. Connolly, Ill.; Samuel W. McCall, Mass.; John J. Jenkins, Wis.; Riehard Wayne Parker, N. J.; Jesse R. Overstreet, Ind.; DeAlva S. Alexander, N. Y.; Warren Miller, W. Va.; William L. Terry, Ark.; David A. DeArmond, Mo.; Samuel W. T. Lanham, Tex.; William Elliott, S. C.; Oscar W. Underwood, Ala.; David H. Smith, Ky.
116 The main facts brought out in all these addresses are fully included in the various State chapters in this volume.
CHAPTER XIX.
The National-American Convention of 1899.
A departure was made by the suffrage association in 1899 in having its convention in the late spring instead of the winter, the Thirty-first annual meeting being held in Grand Rapids, Mich., April 27-May 3. It was thought by many that this was an unfavorable season, as the audiences were not so large as usual, but in all other respects it was one of the most delightful of these many gatherings. The meetings were held in the handsome St. Cecilia Club House, whose auditorium seats 1,200, and the official report, usually confined to bare details, contains the following account:
The music arranged by Mrs. Rathbone Carpenter and her efficient committee was throughout of the finest character and fully justified the reputation of Grand Rapids as a musical community. Mrs. W. D. Giddings, chairman of decorations, worked daily with different members of her committee in arranging the cut flowers and decorative plants generously furnished by different florists, so that the platform was beautiful and fragrant from beginning to end of the meetings. At the evening sessions the audience was seated by the help of young lady ushers under the management of Mrs. Marie Wilson Beasley.
The Bureau of Information, under the charge of Mrs. H. Margaret Downs; the Courtesies, chairman, Mrs. Delos A. Blodgett, and the opening reception on the first evening of the convention, chairman, Mrs. William Alden Smith, were ably managed. But, with the exception of the work devolving upon Mrs. Ketcham, the most constant and trying labor fell to the chairman of entertainment, Mrs. Allen C. Adsit, who cared for the housing of all the delegates and also of the Michigan friends in attendance.
Of the efforts bf Mrs. Emily B. Ketcham the entire convention bore witness; it went to Grand Rapids upon her invitation, and upon her work for many months before its opening depended its success, which was unquestioned. At one of the evening sessions she was surprised by the presentation of a handsome souvenir of the occasion containing the signatures of the officers of the association, the speakers and many of the local workers. At the close of the first evening the National officers, assisted by Mrs. Ketcham, Mrs. William Alden Smith, Mrs. Julius Burrows and several of the speakers, received in the beautiful parlor of the St. Cecilia, thus giving delegates and visitors an opportunity to meet the people of the city and to exchange social greetings with each other.
The Ladies' Literary Club, which also owns its home, kept open house several afternoons from four to six, the officers receiving the guests and serving light refreshments. This club also tendered the freedom of its house for any and all hours of the day to the delegates. Saturday afternoon the Federation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Unions of Grand Rapids received the convention at the Young Woman's Building, where a substantial supper was served. The Bissell carpet-sweeper factory, president, Mrs. M. R. Bissell, presented to the delegates one hundred and fifty specially made small carpet-sweepers, each marked in gilt, National American Woman Suffrage Association.
But to the Board of Trade belongs the honor of having outrivaled all the other kind hosts in the extent of their hospitality. They presented to the convention its programs, beautifully printed on extra fine paper and bearing a picture of the St. Cecilia Club House. The Board also sent carriages to take the entire working convention for a drive through the city, a visit to one of the largest furniture warehouses and to the carpet-sweeper factory, where Mrs. Bissell received the delegates and all were shown through the works. A handsome souvenir containing many views of the city was given by the Board to every delegate.
The ladies of the St. Cecilia were kindness itself, and it was delightful to hold the meetings in so friendly an atmosphere, as well as in so well appointed a building. The president, Mrs. Kelsey, presented to the badge committee St. Cecilia pins having a reproduction of Carlo Dolci's head of the musical saint after whom this club is named, the only musical society of women in the United States which owns a club-house.
Cordial addresses of welcome were made by Emily B. Ketcham, president of Susan B. Anthony Club; Mary Atwater Kelsey, president of St. Cecilia; Josephine Ahnafeldt Goss, president of Ladies' Literary Club; May Stocking Knaggs, president of State Equal Suffrage Association; Martha A. Keating, president of State Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. A. S. Benjamin, president of State Women's Christian Temperance Union; Mary A. McConnelly, department president of State Woman's Relief Corps; Lucy A. Leggett, president of State Woman's Press Association, and Frances E. Burns, Great Commander Ladies of the Maccabees.
Mrs. Ketcham expressed their pleasure in having Grand Rapids selected in preference to several larger cities which had extended invitations; referred to the long distances many of the delegates had come and assured the convention of a royal welcome, not only from the city but from the State. Brief extracts must give an idea of the scope and cordiality of these addresses:
Mrs. Goss: This has been called the woman's century. The past centuries might have been called man's, because of the great progress he has made in them; and it is now conceded that God made women to match the men. The next will be the children's century, when they will make real their parents' ideals. After humanity has been sufficiently educated, people will understand that no class has a right to special privileges, or can appropriate them without injury to the body politic. Then a woman will not demand any special privilege because she is a woman, nor be denied it because she is not a man. As a result of this movement, old lessons have been better learned and old burdens more easily carried. We advocate equal suffrage not alone because it is just