Susan B. Anthony Part 37

National woman suffrage conventions were still red-letter events to Susan and she attended them no matter how great the physical effort, traveling to New Orleans in 1903. Of particular concern was the 1904 convention because of Mrs. Catt's decision at the very last moment not to stand for re-election on account of her health. Looking over the field, Susan saw no one capable of taking her place but Anna Howard Shaw. Not to be able to turn to Mrs. Stanton's capable daughter, Harriot Stanton Blatch, at this time was disappointing, but Harriot's long absence in England had made her more or less of a stranger to the members.h.i.+p of the National American a.s.sociation, and for some reason she did not seem to fit in, lacking her mother's warmth and appeal.[441]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Quotation in the handwriting of Susan B. Anthony]

"I don't see anybody in the whole rank of our suffrage movement to take her [Mrs. Catt's] place but you," Susan now wrote Anna Howard Shaw. "If you will take it with a salary of say, $2,000, I will go ahead and try to see what I can do. We must not let the society down into _feeble_ hands.... Don't say _no_, for the _life_ of _you_, for if Mrs. Catt _persists_ in going out, we shall simply _have_ to _accept it_ and we must _tide over_ with the _best material_ that we have, and _you are the best_, and would you have taken office _four years ago_, you would have been elected over-whelmingly."[442]

Anna could not refuse Aunt Susan, and when she was elected with Mrs.

Catt as vice-president, Susan breathed freely again.

It warmed Susan's heart to enter the convention on her eighty-fourth birthday to a thundering welcome, to banter with Mrs. Upton who called her to the platform, and to stop the applause with a smile and "There now, girls, that's enough."[443] Nothing could have been more appropriate for her birthday than the Colorado jubilee over which she presided and which gave irrefutable evidence of the success of woman suffrage in that state. There was rejoicing too over Australia, where women had been voting since 1902 and over the new hope in Europe, in Denmark, where women had chosen her birthday to stage a demonstration in favor of the pending franchise bill.

For the last time, she spoke to a Senate committee on the woman suffrage amendment. Standing before these indifferent men, a tired warrior at the end of a long hard campaign, she reminded them that she alone remained of those who thirty-five years before, in 1869, had appealed to Congress for justice. "And I," she added, "shall not be able to come much longer.

"We have waited," she told them. "We stood aside for the Negro; we waited for the millions of immigrants; now we must wait till the Hawaiians, the Filipinos, and the Puerto Ricans are enfranchised; then no doubt the Cubans will have their turn. For all these ignorant, alien peoples, educated women have been compelled to stand aside and wait!" Then with mounting impatience, she asked them, "How long will this injustice, this outrage continue?"[444]

Their answer to her was silence. They sent no report to the Senate on the woman suffrage amendment. Yet she was able to say to a reporter of the New York _Sun_, "I have never lost my faith, not for a moment in fifty years."[445]

FOOTNOTES:

[422] Rachel Foster Avery, Ed., _National Council of Women_, 1891 (Philadelphia, 1891), p. 229.

[423] Dec. 1, 1898, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.

Mrs. Elnora Babc.o.c.k of New York was in charge of the press bureau.

[424] Miss Anthony was enrolled as a member of the Knights of Labor and invited this organization to send delegates to the International Council of Women in 1888.

[425] To Ellen Wright Garrison, 1900, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.

[426] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1137. A few years later, militant suffragists, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, were active in London. Mrs.

Pankhurst heard Miss Anthony speak in Manchester in 1904.

[427] Ida Husted Harper Ms., Catharine Waugh McCulloch Papers, Radcliffe Women's Archives.

[428] Nov. 20, 1899, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.

[429] _History of Woman Suffrage_, IV, p. 385. Miss Anthony was "moved up," as she expressed it, to Honorary President.

[430] Peck, Catt, p. 107, Was.h.i.+ngton _Post_ quotation.

[431] To Laura Clay, April 15, 1900, University of Kentucky Library, Lexington, Kentucky.

[432] _Ibid._, March 15, 1900.

[433] _Ibid._

[434] _Ibid._, Sept. 7, 1900.

[435] Ms., Diary, Nov. 10, 1900.

[436] _Ibid._, Sept. 26, 1900. A separate woman's college was established at the University of Rochester and not until 1952 were the men's and women's colleges merged.

[437] May 20, 1901, Note, Susan B. Anthony Memorial Collection, Rochester, New York.

[438] _History of Woman Suffrage_, V, pp. 741-742.

[439] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1263.

[440] Oct. 28, 1902, Anthony Collection, Henry E. Huntington Library.

[441] Oct. 27, 1904, Elizabeth Smith Miller Collection, New York Public Library. A few years later, Mrs. Blatch made a vital contribution to the cause through the Women's Political Union which she organized and which brought more militant methods and new life into the woman suffrage campaign in New York State.

[442] Jan. 27, 1904, Lucy E. Anthony Collection. Mrs. Blake who had been a candidate in 1900 had by this time formed her own organization, the National Legislative League.

[443] _History of Woman Suffrage_, V, p. 99.

[444] Harper, _Anthony_, III, p. 1308.

[445] _Ibid._

SUSAN B. ANTHONY OF THE WORLD

Susan was on the ocean in May 1904 with her sister Mary and a group of good friends, headed for a meeting of the International Council of Women in Berlin. What drew her to Berlin was the plan initiated by Carrie Chapman Catt to form an International Woman Suffrage Alliance prior to the meetings of the International Council. This had been Susan's dream and Mrs. Stanton's in 1883, when they first conferred with women of other countries regarding an international woman suffrage organization and found only the women of England ready to unite on such a radical program. Now that women had worked together successfully in the International Council for sixteen years on other less controversial matters relating to women, she and Mrs. Catt were confident that a few of them at least were willing to unite to demand the vote.

Chosen as a matter of course to preside over this gathering of suffragists in Berlin, Susan received an enthusiastic welcome. For her it was a momentous occasion, and eager to spread news of the meeting far and wide, she could not understand the objections of many of the delegates to the presence of reporters who they feared might send out sensational copy.

"My friends, what are we here for?" she asked her more timid colleagues. "We have come from many countries, travelled thousands of miles to form an organization for a great international work, and do we want to keep it a secret from the public? No; welcome all reporters who want to come, the more, the better. Let all we say and do here be told far and wide. Let the people everywhere know that in Berlin women from all parts of the world have banded themselves together to demand political freedom. I rejoice in the presence of these reporters, and instead of excluding them from our meetings let us help them to all the information we can and ask them to give it the widest publicity."[446]

This won the battle for the reporters, who gave her rousing applause, and the news flashed over the wires was sympathetic, dignified, and abundant. It told the world of the formation of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance by women from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and Denmark, "to secure the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women of all nations." It praised the honorary president, Susan B. Anthony, and the American women who took over the leaders.h.i.+p of this international venture, Carrie Chapman Catt, the president, and Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary.

To celebrate the occasion, German suffragists called a public ma.s.s meeting, and Susan, eager to rejoice with them, was surprised to find members of the International Council disgruntled and accusing the International Woman Suffrage Alliance of stealing their thunder and casting the dark shadow of woman suffrage over their conference. To placate them and restore harmony, she stayed away from this public meeting, but she could not control the demand for her presence.

"Where is Susan B. Anthony?" were the first words spoken as the ma.s.s meeting opened. Then immediately the audience rose and burst into cheers which continued without a break for ten minutes. Anna Howard Shaw there on the platform and deeply moved by this tribute to Aunt Susan, later described how she felt: "Every second of that time I seemed to see Miss Anthony alone in her hotel room, longing with all her big heart to be with us, as we longed to have her.... Afterwards, when we burst in upon her and told her of the great demonstration, the mere mention of her name had caused, her lips quivered and her brave old eyes filled with tears."[447]

The next morning her "girls" brought her the Berlin newspapers, translating for her the report of the meeting and these heart-warming lines, "The Americans call her 'Aunt Susan.' She is our 'Aunt Susan'

too."

This was but a foretaste of her reception throughout her stay in Berlin. To the International Council, she was "Susan B. Anthony of the World," the woman of the hour, whom all wanted to meet. Every time she entered the conference hall, the audience rose and remained standing until she was seated. Every mention of her name brought forth cheers.

The many young women, acting as ushers, were devoted to her and eager to serve her. They greeted her by kissing her hand. Embarra.s.sed at first by such homage, she soon responded by kissing them on the cheek.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Susan B. Anthony at the age of eighty-five]

The Empress Victoria Augusta, receiving the delegates in the Royal Palace, singled out Susan, and instead of following the custom of kissing the Empress's hand, Susan bowed as she would to any distinguished American, explaining that she was a Quaker and did not understand the etiquette of the court. The Empress praised Susan's great work, and unwilling to let such an opportunity slip by, Susan offered the suggestion that Emperor William who had done so much to build up his country might now wish to raise the status of German women. To this the Empress replied with a smile, "The gentlemen are very slow to comprehend this great movement."[448]

When the talented Negro, Mary Church Terrell, addressing the International Council in both German and French, received an ovation, Susan's cup of joy was filled to the brim, for she glimpsed the bright promise of a world without barriers of s.e.x or race.