Latest / Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian / 22 - Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian by Alma Lutz

Transcript

22 - Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian by Alma Lutz · Susan B. Anthony Rebel, Crusader, Humanitarian

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of Susan b Anthony by All Mahluttz.
0:05
Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty
0:10
Speaker 1: two victories in the West. New Western states were coming
0:16
Speaker 1: into the Union North and South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho,
0:22
Speaker 1: and Wyoming, and in Susan's opinion, it was highly important
0:27
Speaker 1: that they be admitted as woman's suffrage states, for she
0:31
Speaker 1: had not forgotten that disturbing line of the Supreme Court
0:35
Speaker 1: decision in the Virginia Minor case, which read, no new
0:40
Speaker 1: state has ever been admitted to the Union which has
0:44
Speaker 1: conferred the right of suffrage on women, and this has
0:48
Speaker 1: never been considered a valid objection to her admission. Susan
0:54
Speaker 1: wanted to start a new trend. Opposition to Wyoming's woman's
0:59
Speaker 1: suffrage provision was strong in Congress, in spite of the
1:03
Speaker 1: fact that it had the unanimous approval of Wyoming's constitutional Convention.
1:10
Speaker 1: To Susan in the gallery of the House of Representatives,
1:14
Speaker 1: listening anxiously to the debate on the admission of Wyoming,
1:19
Speaker 1: defeat was unthinkable after woman had voted in the territory
1:23
Speaker 1: of Wyoming for twenty years. But Democrats, wishing to block
1:28
Speaker 1: the admission of a preponderantly Republican state used woman's suffrage
1:34
Speaker 1: as an excuse. With a sinking heart, she heard an
1:38
Speaker 1: amendment offered limiting suffrage in Wyoming to males. At the
1:44
Speaker 1: crucial moment, however, the tide was turned by a telegram
1:48
Speaker 1: from the Wyoming legislature, the words of which rejoiced Susan,
1:54
Speaker 1: we will remain out of the Union a hundred years
1:58
Speaker 1: rather than come in with without women's suffrage. After this,
2:03
Speaker 1: the House voted to admit Wyoming one hundred thirty nine
2:07
Speaker 1: to one hundred twenty seven, but the Senate delayed, renewing
2:11
Speaker 1: the attack on the woman's suffrage provision. Not until July
2:16
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety, while she was speaking to a large audience
2:20
Speaker 1: in the Opera House at Madison, South Dakota, did the
2:24
Speaker 1: good news of the admission of Wyoming reach her. Jubilant
2:29
Speaker 1: as she commented on this great victory, she spoke as
2:32
Speaker 1: one inspired, for she saw this as the turning point
2:36
Speaker 1: in her forty long years of uphill work. Neither North
2:42
Speaker 1: Dakota nor South Dakota had wanted to risk their chances
2:46
Speaker 1: of statehood by incorporating women's suffrage in their constitutions. Yet
2:51
Speaker 1: public opinion in both states was friendly, South Dakota directing
2:57
Speaker 1: its first legislature to submit the question to the voters.
3:01
Speaker 1: It was this that brought Susan to South Dakota in
3:05
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety. Sentiment for women's suffrage in South Dakota had
3:10
Speaker 1: previously been created almost entirely by the w C t U,
3:16
Speaker 1: and this had linked woman's suffrage and prohibition together. Now
3:21
Speaker 1: the liquor interests made prohibition an issue in this woman's
3:25
Speaker 1: suffrage campaign, as they rallied their forces for the repeal
3:30
Speaker 1: of prohibition, which had been adopted when South Dakota was
3:34
Speaker 1: admitted to statehood. Through the propaganda of the liquor interests,
3:40
Speaker 1: the thirty thousand foreign born voters became formidable opponents, and
3:45
Speaker 1: newly naturalized Russians, Scandinavians, and Poles given the vote before
3:51
Speaker 1: American women wore a badges carrying the slogan against Women's
3:57
Speaker 1: Suffrage and Susan b Anthony. Both Republicans and Democrats cultivated
4:03
Speaker 1: these foreign born voters, turning a cold shoulder to the
4:07
Speaker 1: Women's Suffrage Amendment and refusing to indorse it in their
4:12
Speaker 1: state conventions. Even the Farmer's Alliance, and the Knights of Labor,
4:17
Speaker 1: previously friendly to women's suffrage, now joined with the prohibitionists
4:23
Speaker 1: to form a third political party, which also failed to
4:27
Speaker 1: indorse the women's suffrage Amendment. On top of all this,
4:32
Speaker 1: anti suffragists from Massachusetts, calling themselves remonstrance, flooded South Dakota
4:39
Speaker 1: with their leaflets. It now seemed to Susan as if
4:44
Speaker 1: every clever politician had lined up against women during these
4:50
Speaker 1: trying days. Anna Howard Shaw joined her, and together they
4:55
Speaker 1: covered the state, hoping by the truth and sincerity of
4:59
Speaker 1: their statements to quash the propaganda against women's suffrage. Often
5:05
Speaker 1: they traveled in freight cars as transportation was limited, or
5:09
Speaker 1: drove long distances in wagons over the sun baked prairie.
5:14
Speaker 1: The heat was intense and the hot winds blowing incessantly
5:19
Speaker 1: seared everything they touched. After two years of drought, the
5:24
Speaker 1: farmers were desperately poor, and Susan, concerned over their plight,
5:29
Speaker 1: wondered why Congress could not have appropriated the money for
5:33
Speaker 1: artesian wells to help these honest, earnest people, instead of
5:38
Speaker 1: voting forty thousand dollars for an investigating commission. Occasionally Susan
5:45
Speaker 1: and Anna spent the night in isolated sod houses, where
5:50
Speaker 1: ingenious pioneer women cooked their scant meals over burning chips
5:55
Speaker 1: of buffalo bones gathered on the prairie, glorying in the
6:00
Speaker 1: valiant spirit of these women, who, in loneliness and hardship,
6:04
Speaker 1: played an important but unheralded role in the conquest of
6:09
Speaker 1: this new country. Susan was generous with her praise to them.
6:14
Speaker 1: Her words of commendation were like a benediction, and few
6:18
Speaker 1: of them ever forgot a visit from Susan b Anthony.
6:23
Speaker 1: By this time, life on the frontier was an old
6:26
Speaker 1: story to her, for she had campaigned under similar conditions
6:31
Speaker 1: in Kansas and in the Far West. Nonetheless, the hardships
6:36
Speaker 1: were trying, Yet this plucky woman of seventy wrote friends
6:41
Speaker 1: in the East, tell everybody that I am perfectly well
6:45
Speaker 1: in body and in mind, never better and never doing
6:49
Speaker 1: more work. Oh the lack of modern comforts and conveniences.
6:55
Speaker 1: But I can put up with it better than any
6:57
Speaker 1: of the young folks. I shall push ahead and do
7:01
Speaker 1: my level best to carry this state, come weal or
7:05
Speaker 1: woe to me. Personally, I never felt so buoyed up
7:10
Speaker 1: with the love and sympathy and confidence of the good
7:13
Speaker 1: people everywhere. Young vigorous Anna Howard Shaw proved to be
7:19
Speaker 1: a campaigner after Susan's own heart, tireless, uncomplaining and good tempered,
7:26
Speaker 1: an exceptional speaker, witty and quick to say the right
7:30
Speaker 1: word at the right time. It was a joy to
7:33
Speaker 1: find in Anna the same devotion to the cause that
7:37
Speaker 1: she herself felt, the same crusading fervor and reliability. During
7:44
Speaker 1: the long drives over the prairie. She talked to Anna
7:48
Speaker 1: of the work that must be done, of what it
7:50
Speaker 1: would mean to the woman of the future, and she
7:53
Speaker 1: fired Anna's soul with the flame that burned in her own.
7:59
Speaker 1: Another young Western woman, Carrie Chapman Cat, also attracted Susan's attention.
8:06
Speaker 1: At this time. She had volunteered for the South Dakota
8:10
Speaker 1: campaign after attending her first National Woman Suffrage Convention, and
8:15
Speaker 1: Susan meeting her in Huron, South Dakota to map out
8:20
Speaker 1: a speaking tour for her. Found a tall, handsome, confident
8:24
Speaker 1: young woman ready to attack the work and see it
8:28
Speaker 1: through in spite of the hardships which confronted her. Carrie Lane,
8:35
Speaker 1: a graduate of Iowa State College, had briefly studied law
8:39
Speaker 1: and taught school before her marriage to Lee Chapman. Now
8:44
Speaker 1: four years after his death, she had married George W.
8:48
Speaker 1: Cat of Seattle, a promising young engineer and a former
8:54
Speaker 1: fellow student at Iowa State College. What particularly impressed Susan
8:59
Speaker 1: was so that Carrie, in spite of her marriage in June,
9:03
Speaker 1: had kept her pledge to come to South Dakota. She
9:07
Speaker 1: was pleased with the way Carrie not only heroically filled
9:11
Speaker 1: every difficult engagement, but sized up the campaign for herself
9:16
Speaker 1: and planned for the future. In Carrie's report of her work,
9:21
Speaker 1: there was a ruthless practicality which was rare and which
9:25
Speaker 1: instantly won Susan's approval. Here was a young woman to
9:29
Speaker 1: watch and to keep in the work. The visible result
9:34
Speaker 1: of six months of campaigning was defeat, with the vote
9:39
Speaker 1: twenty two thousand, nine hundred seventy two for woman suffrage
9:44
Speaker 1: and forty five thousand, six hundred thirty two opposed. And
9:48
Speaker 1: as Susan remembered the maneuvers of the politicians, the trading
9:53
Speaker 1: of votes for the location of the state capital, and
9:56
Speaker 1: the scheming of the liquor interests, she felt she was
10:00
Speaker 1: championing a lonely cause. From now on, Susan hoped to
10:06
Speaker 1: turn over to the younger women much of the lecturing
10:09
Speaker 1: and organizing in the West, and she needed an anchorage,
10:13
Speaker 1: a home of her own from which she could direct
10:16
Speaker 1: her work. Her mother had willed seventeen Madison Street to Mary,
10:22
Speaker 1: who had rented the first floor and was living on
10:25
Speaker 1: the second, where there was a room for Susan. Now
10:28
Speaker 1: that Susan planned to spend more time at home and
10:32
Speaker 1: Mary had retired from teaching, they decided to take over
10:36
Speaker 1: the whole house, modernize and redecorate it, and enjoy it
10:40
Speaker 1: the rest of their lives. Mary, as usual, took charge,
10:45
Speaker 1: but Susan had definite ideas about what should be done. Mary,
10:51
Speaker 1: who had learned to be cautious and frugal, was more
10:54
Speaker 1: willing than Susan to make old furnishings do. But their
10:58
Speaker 1: friends came to the rescue, showering them with gifts, freshly
11:04
Speaker 1: painted and papered, with new rugs on the floor, lace
11:08
Speaker 1: curtains at the windows, easy chairs, and new furniture here
11:12
Speaker 1: and there. The house was all Susan had wished for,
11:16
Speaker 1: and everywhere were familiar touches, such as her mother's spinning
11:21
Speaker 1: wheel by the fireplace in the back parlor. She spent
11:25
Speaker 1: most of her time in her study on the second floor.
11:29
Speaker 1: Here she hung her pictures of the reformers she admired
11:32
Speaker 1: and loved, and right over her desk, looking down at her,
11:37
Speaker 1: was the comforting picture of her dearest friend, Missus Stanton.
11:42
Speaker 1: Hour after hour she sat at this desk writing letters,
11:47
Speaker 1: hurriedly dashing off one after another, writing just as the
11:52
Speaker 1: thoughts came, as if she were talking, bothering little with punctuation,
11:57
Speaker 1: using dashes instead, and vigororiously underlining words and phrases for emphasis.
12:04
Speaker 1: Instructions to workers in all parts of the country, Letters
12:08
Speaker 1: of friendship and sympathy, answers to the many questions which
12:13
Speaker 1: came in every mail. These were signed and sealed, one
12:17
Speaker 1: after another, and slipped into the mailbox when she took
12:21
Speaker 1: a brisk walk before going to bed. She started each
12:26
Speaker 1: day with the morning newspaper, stepping out on the front
12:30
Speaker 1: verandah to pick it up, taking a deep breath of
12:33
Speaker 1: fresh air and enjoying the green grass and the tall,
12:37
Speaker 1: graceful chestnut trees in front of the house. Then sitting
12:42
Speaker 1: down in the back parlor beside the big table covered
12:45
Speaker 1: with magazines and mail. She carefully read her paper before
12:50
Speaker 1: beginning the work at her desk, for she must keep
12:53
Speaker 1: up to date on the news. Rochester was important to her.
12:58
Speaker 1: It was her city, and she was on hand with
13:01
Speaker 1: her colleagues whenever there was an opportunity for women to
13:04
Speaker 1: express interest in its government, progress or welfare. Not only
13:10
Speaker 1: did she encourage women to make use of their newly
13:13
Speaker 1: won right to vote in school elections, she also urged
13:18
Speaker 1: municipal suffrage for women, appealing to the governor to appoint
13:23
Speaker 1: a woman to fill a vacancy on the board of
13:25
Speaker 1: trustees of Rochester's State Industrial School. She herself received the appointment,
13:32
Speaker 1: which the Democrat and Chronicle called a fitting recognition of
13:36
Speaker 1: one of the ablest and best women in the Commonwealth.
13:41
Speaker 1: One of her first acts as trustee was a practical
13:45
Speaker 1: one for the girls spent entire day at State Industrial School.
13:51
Speaker 1: She wrote in her diary, getting the laundry girls who
13:55
Speaker 1: had always washed for the entire institution by hand and
13:59
Speaker 1: ironed that old way, transferred to the boy's laundry room
14:03
Speaker 1: to use its machinery. I'm sure it will work well, girls,
14:09
Speaker 1: twelve of them delighted, She also taught the boys to
14:13
Speaker 1: patch and darn, and later asked for co education. Susan
14:19
Speaker 1: looked forward to welcoming missus Stanton at seventeen Madison Street
14:24
Speaker 1: when she returned to this country in eighteen ninety one,
14:28
Speaker 1: particularly because she had sold her home in Tenafly after
14:32
Speaker 1: her husband's death in eighteen eighty seven and now had
14:37
Speaker 1: no home to go to. Susan hoped that as they
14:41
Speaker 1: again worked together, she could persuade missus Stanton to concentrate
14:46
Speaker 1: on more serious writing than the chatty reminiscences she had
14:50
Speaker 1: just published, in which Susan felt were not the greatest
14:54
Speaker 1: of herself. When she heard that missus Stanton seriously contemplated
14:59
Speaker 1: living in New York with two of her children, she
15:02
Speaker 1: begged her to reconsider, writing. This is the first time
15:07
Speaker 1: since eighteen fifty that I have anchored myself to any
15:11
Speaker 1: particular spot, and in doing it, my constant thought was
15:15
Speaker 1: that you would come here and stay for as long
15:19
Speaker 1: at least as we must be together to put your
15:22
Speaker 1: writings into systematic shape to go down to posterity. I
15:27
Speaker 1: have no writings to go down, so my ambition is
15:31
Speaker 1: not for myself, but is for the one by the
15:34
Speaker 1: side of whom I have wrought these forty years, and
15:38
Speaker 1: to get whose speeches before audiences has been the delight
15:42
Speaker 1: of my life. Missus Stanton decided to make her home
15:46
Speaker 1: in New York, but first she visited Susan, who found
15:50
Speaker 1: her as stimulating as ever and brim full of ideas.
15:55
Speaker 1: They plodded and planned as of old, and managed to
15:59
Speaker 1: stir up public opinion on the question of admitting women
16:03
Speaker 1: to the University of Rochester. With women enrolled at the
16:07
Speaker 1: University of Michigan since eighteen seventy and at Cornell since
16:12
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two, and with Columbia University yielding at last
16:18
Speaker 1: to women's entreaties by establishing Barnard College in eighteen eighty nine,
16:24
Speaker 1: they felt it their duty to awaken Rochester, and although
16:28
Speaker 1: their agitation produced no immediate results, it did start other
16:33
Speaker 1: women thinking and made news for the press. The cartoons
16:37
Speaker 1: on the subject delighted them. Both. Susan soon realized that
16:43
Speaker 1: the writing she had planned for Missus Stanton would never
16:46
Speaker 1: be done for Missus Stanton had already made up her
16:50
Speaker 1: mind to write for magazines and newspapers on new and
16:54
Speaker 1: controversial subjects, feeling this was the best contribution she could
16:59
Speaker 1: make to the cat. Susan also found it increasingly difficult
17:04
Speaker 1: to hold her old friend to the straight path of
17:07
Speaker 1: women's suffrage, missus Stanton, insisting that too much concentration on
17:12
Speaker 1: this one subject was narrowing and left women unprepared for
17:18
Speaker 1: the intelligent use of the ballot. Women, missus Stanton argued,
17:23
Speaker 1: needed to be stirred up to think, and this they
17:26
Speaker 1: would not do as long as their minds were dominated
17:30
Speaker 1: by the Church, which she believed had for generations hampered
17:34
Speaker 1: their development by emphasizing their inferiority and subordination. She was
17:40
Speaker 1: determined to analyze and rebel, and Susan could in no
17:45
Speaker 1: way divert her Completely absorbed in trying to prove that
17:50
Speaker 1: the Bible, accurately translated and interpreted, did not teach the
17:55
Speaker 1: inferiority or the subordination of women. She was writing a
17:59
Speaker 1: bok book which she called The Woman's Bible, chapters of
18:03
Speaker 1: which were already appearing in the Woman's Tribune. Susan was
18:08
Speaker 1: not unsympathetic to missus Stanton's ideas, but she opposed this
18:13
Speaker 1: excursion into religious controversy because she was sure it would
18:18
Speaker 1: stir up futile wrangles among the suffragists and keep missus
18:23
Speaker 1: Stanton from giving her best to the cause. Her lack
18:27
Speaker 1: of interest then and her frank disapproval as the Woman's
18:31
Speaker 1: Bible progressed, were a great disappointment to missus Stanton, and
18:36
Speaker 1: these two old friends began to grow somewhat apart as
18:40
Speaker 1: they took different roads to reach their goal, the one
18:44
Speaker 1: intent on freeing woman's minds, the other determined to establish
18:49
Speaker 1: their citizenship. Yet their friendship endured. In eighteen ninety two,
18:55
Speaker 1: Susan reluctantly consented to missus Stanton's retirement as president of
19:00
Speaker 1: the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Missus Stanton's request that
19:06
Speaker 1: she be followed by Susan won unanimous approval, and Anna
19:11
Speaker 1: Howard Shaw was moved up to second place, vice president
19:15
Speaker 1: at large. For forty years, Susan had watched missus Stanton
19:20
Speaker 1: preside with a poise, warmth, and skill which few could equal.
19:26
Speaker 1: She knew she would miss her dynamic, reassuring presence at
19:30
Speaker 1: the conventions, yet she was obliged to admit to herself
19:34
Speaker 1: that it was more than fitting that she should at
19:37
Speaker 1: last had the ever growing organization which she had built up.
19:42
Speaker 1: This was the last convention which missus Stanton attended, and
19:46
Speaker 1: it was the last for Lucy Stone, who died the
19:49
Speaker 1: next year. Susan appreciated the eager young women who now
19:54
Speaker 1: took their places, but she did not yet feel completely
19:58
Speaker 1: at home with them, only think, she wrote an old
20:02
Speaker 1: time colleague, I shall not have a white haired woman
20:06
Speaker 1: on the platform with me, and I shall be alone
20:09
Speaker 1: there of all the pioneer workers, always with the old guard.
20:15
Speaker 1: I had perfect confidence that the wise and right thing
20:19
Speaker 1: would be said. What a platform ours then was of
20:23
Speaker 1: self reliant, strong woman. I felt sure of you all.
20:28
Speaker 1: I cannot feel quite certain that our younger sisters will
20:32
Speaker 1: be equal to the emergency. Yet they are each and
20:36
Speaker 1: all valiant, earnest, and talented, and will soon be left
20:41
Speaker 1: to manage the ship without even me. In eighteen ninety two,
20:46
Speaker 1: the year of the presidential election, Susan hopefully attended the
20:51
Speaker 1: national political conventions again. The Republicans made their proverbial excuses,
20:57
Speaker 1: explaining that they not only fail a formidable opponent in
21:01
Speaker 1: Grover Cleveland, but also the threat of a new People's Party.
21:07
Speaker 1: The familiar ring of their alibis, which they had repeated
21:11
Speaker 1: since reconstruction days made Susan wonder when and if ever
21:16
Speaker 1: the Republicans would feel able to bear the strain of
21:20
Speaker 1: women's suffrage. Their platform remembered the poor, the foreign born,
21:25
Speaker 1: and male negroes, but it still ignored women. Yet hope
21:31
Speaker 1: for the future stirred in her heart as she saw
21:33
Speaker 1: at the convention two women serving as delegates from Wyoming.
21:39
Speaker 1: Here was the entering wedge. The Democrats, as usual, were
21:44
Speaker 1: silent on women's suffrage, but undismayed by them or by
21:49
Speaker 1: the prohibitionists, who this year failed to endorse votes for women.
21:54
Speaker 1: Susan moved on to Omaha with Anna Howard Shaw for
21:58
Speaker 1: the first national Convention of the new People's Party. Here
22:03
Speaker 1: she met representatives of the Farmer's Alliance and the Knights
22:07
Speaker 1: of Labor, both friendly to women's suffrage, and men from
22:11
Speaker 1: other groups critical of the two major political parties for
22:16
Speaker 1: their failure to solve the pressing economic problems confronting the nation.
22:22
Speaker 1: Susan was sympathetic with many of the aims of the
22:25
Speaker 1: People's Party, having seen with her own eyes the plight
22:30
Speaker 1: of debt burdened hard working farmers, and having crusaded in
22:34
Speaker 1: her own paper the revolution for the rights of labor
22:38
Speaker 1: and for the control of industrial monopoly. However, she still
22:44
Speaker 1: viewed minor reform parties with a highly critical eye. The
22:49
Speaker 1: People's Party gave her no woman's suffrage plank, and she
22:53
Speaker 1: found them quite as obvious to the underlying principle of
22:57
Speaker 1: justice to women as either of the Old Party. With
23:01
Speaker 1: the election of Grover Cleveland, whose opposition to women's suffrage
23:05
Speaker 1: was well known, and with the Democrats in the saddle
23:09
Speaker 1: for another four years, congressional action on the women's Suffrage
23:13
Speaker 1: Amendment was blocked. Nevertheless, the cause moved ahead in the States.
23:20
Speaker 1: Colorado was to vote on the question in eighteen ninety
23:23
Speaker 1: three and Kansas in eighteen ninety four, and New York
23:28
Speaker 1: was revising its constitution. In addition, the World's Fair in
23:34
Speaker 1: Chicago in eighteen ninety three offered endless opportunities to bring
23:39
Speaker 1: the subject before the people. As soon as plans for
23:44
Speaker 1: the World's Fair were under way, Susan began to work
23:47
Speaker 1: indirectly through prominent women in Washington and Chicago for the
23:52
Speaker 1: appointment of women to the board of management. Lady managers
23:57
Speaker 1: were appointed one hundred and fifteen strong, who proved to
24:01
Speaker 1: be very much alive under the leadership of Missus Bertha
24:06
Speaker 1: Honarrey Palmer. Susan found Missus Palmer almost as determined as
24:12
Speaker 1: she to secure equality of rights for women at the
24:15
Speaker 1: World's Fair, and nothing that she herself might have planned
24:20
Speaker 1: could have been more effective than the series of world
24:23
Speaker 1: Congresses in which both men and women took part, or
24:27
Speaker 1: than the World's Congress of Representative Women. Two of Susan's girls,
24:34
Speaker 1: as she liked to call them, Rachel Foster Avery and
24:38
Speaker 1: may Wright Sewell, were appointed by Missus Palmer to take
24:43
Speaker 1: charge of the World's Congress of Representative Women, and they
24:48
Speaker 1: arranged a meeting of the International Council of Women as
24:52
Speaker 1: a part of this congress. Convening soon after the opening
24:56
Speaker 1: of the World's Fair, the Congress of Representative Walls Women
25:00
Speaker 1: drew record crowds at its eighty one sessions. Twenty seven
25:05
Speaker 1: countries and one hundred and twenty six organizations were represented here. Susan,
25:12
Speaker 1: to her joy, heard Negroes, American Indians, and Mormons tell
25:17
Speaker 1: of their progress and their problems, and saw them treated
25:21
Speaker 1: with as much respect as American millionaires, English nobility, or
25:27
Speaker 1: the most virtuous conservative housewife. Watching these women assemble, talking
25:33
Speaker 1: with them and listening to their well delivered speeches. She
25:37
Speaker 1: felt richly rewarded for the lonely work she had undertaken
25:41
Speaker 1: forty years before, when scarcely a woman could be coaxed
25:46
Speaker 1: to a meeting or be persuaded to express her opinions
25:50
Speaker 1: in public. Although only one session of the Congress was
25:54
Speaker 1: devoted to the civil and political rights of women, it
25:58
Speaker 1: was gratifying to her that woman's need of the ballot
26:02
Speaker 1: was spontaneously brought up in meeting after meeting, showing that women,
26:08
Speaker 1: whatever their cause or whatever their organization, were recognizing that
26:13
Speaker 1: only by means of the vote could their reforms be achieved.
26:18
Speaker 1: Speaking on the subject to which she had dedicated her life,
26:22
Speaker 1: Susan gave credit to the pioneering suffragists for the change
26:27
Speaker 1: which had taken place in public opinion regarding the position
26:31
Speaker 1: of women. She urged women's organizations to give suffrage their
26:36
Speaker 1: whole hearted support, and pointed out the great power of
26:41
Speaker 1: some of the newer organizations, such as the w c
26:44
Speaker 1: t U, with its membership of half a million, and
26:48
Speaker 1: the Young General Federation of Women's Clubs of forty thousand members.
26:54
Speaker 1: Confessing that her own National American Women's Suffrage Association, in comparison,
27:01
Speaker 1: was poor in numbers and limited in funds. She added,
27:06
Speaker 1: I would philosophize on the reason why. It is because
27:10
Speaker 1: women have been taught always to work for something else
27:14
Speaker 1: than their own personal freedom, and the hardest thing in
27:17
Speaker 1: the world is to organize women for the one purpose
27:21
Speaker 1: of securing their political liberty and political equality. Even so,
27:28
Speaker 1: the vital women's rights organizations, she concluded, drew the whole
27:33
Speaker 1: world to them in spirit, if not in person. Her
27:37
Speaker 1: very presence among them without her words. In fact, her
27:41
Speaker 1: very presence on the fair grounds advertised her cause. For
27:46
Speaker 1: in the mind of the public, she personified women's suffrage.
27:51
Speaker 1: This tall, dignified woman with smooth gray hair, abundant in
27:55
Speaker 1: energy and spontaneous friendliness, was the center of attraction at
28:00
Speaker 1: the World's Congress of Representative Women. In her new black
28:04
Speaker 1: dress of Chinese silk brightened with blue, and her small
28:09
Speaker 1: black bonnet trimmed with lace and blue forget me nots,
28:13
Speaker 1: she was the perfect picture of every one's grandmother, and
28:17
Speaker 1: the people took her to their hearts. She was the
28:21
Speaker 1: one woman all wanted to see. Curious crowds jammed the
28:25
Speaker 1: hall and corridors when she was scheduled to speak, and
28:29
Speaker 1: often a policeman had to clear the way for her.
28:33
Speaker 1: At whatever meeting she appeared, the audience at once burst
28:37
Speaker 1: into applause and started calling for her, interrupting the speakers,
28:42
Speaker 1: and were not satisfied until she had mounted the platform
28:46
Speaker 1: so that all could see her, and she had said
28:49
Speaker 1: a few words. Then they cheered her. After years of
28:54
Speaker 1: ridicule and unpopularity, she hardly knew what to make of
28:58
Speaker 1: all this, but she accepted it with happiness as a
29:01
Speaker 1: tribute to her beloved cause. Many who had been critical
29:06
Speaker 1: and wary of her new fangled notions began to reverse
29:10
Speaker 1: their opinions after they saw her and heard her words
29:13
Speaker 1: of good common sense. Even those who still opposed women's
29:17
Speaker 1: suffrage left the World's Fair with a new respect for
29:21
Speaker 1: Susan B. Anthony. She stayed on in Chicago for much
29:27
Speaker 1: of the summer and fall, for she was in demand
29:30
Speaker 1: as a speaker at several of the World Congresses and
29:34
Speaker 1: had five speeches to read from missus Stanton, who felt
29:37
Speaker 1: unable to brave the heat and the crowds. She felt
29:41
Speaker 1: at home in this bustling, rapidly growing city, which for
29:45
Speaker 1: so many years had been the half way station on
29:48
Speaker 1: her lecture and campaign trips through the West. Here she
29:53
Speaker 1: had always found a warm welcome, first from her cousins,
29:57
Speaker 1: the Dickinsons, then from the ever widening circle of friends
30:02
Speaker 1: she won for her cause. Now she was literally swamped
30:06
Speaker 1: with hospitality. She rejoiced that such great numbers of everyday
30:11
Speaker 1: people were able to enjoy the beauty of the fair
30:14
Speaker 1: grounds and the many interesting exhibits. And when a group
30:18
Speaker 1: of clergymen urged Sunday clothing, she took issue with them,
30:23
Speaker 1: declaring that Sunday was the only day on which many
30:27
Speaker 1: were free to attend. Asked by a disapproving clergyman if
30:32
Speaker 1: she would like to have a son of hers attend
30:34
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bill's Wild West show on Sunday, she promptly and
30:39
Speaker 1: bluntly replied, of course I would, and I think he
30:42
Speaker 1: would learn far more there than from the sermons in
30:45
Speaker 1: some churches. Hearing of this, Buffalo Bill offered her a
30:51
Speaker 1: box at his popular Wild West show, and she appeared
30:55
Speaker 1: the next day with twelve of her girls, dashing into
30:59
Speaker 1: the arena on his spirited horse while the band played
31:04
Speaker 1: and the spotlight flashed on him. Buffalo Bill rode directly
31:08
Speaker 1: up to Susan's box, reined his horse, and swept off
31:12
Speaker 1: his big western hat to salute her. Quick to respond,
31:17
Speaker 1: she rose and bowed, and, beaming with pleasure, waved her
31:21
Speaker 1: handkerchief at him, while the immense audience applauded and cheered.
31:27
Speaker 1: She returned home early in November eighteen ninety three with
31:31
Speaker 1: happy memories of the world's fair and to good news
31:35
Speaker 1: from Colorado. Telegram from Denver set woman's suffrage carried by
31:42
Speaker 1: five thousand majority, She recorded in her diary. This laconic
31:47
Speaker 1: comment in no way expressed the joy in her heart.
31:52
Speaker 1: Her diaries, written hurriedly in small, fine script, year after
31:57
Speaker 1: year in black covered note book about three inches by
32:01
Speaker 1: six where a brief, terse record of her work and
32:05
Speaker 1: her travels. Only occasionally a line of philosophizing shone out
32:11
Speaker 1: from the mass of routine detail, or an illuminating comment
32:15
Speaker 1: on a friend or a difficult situation. But she never
32:19
Speaker 1: failed to record of family anniversary, a birthday, or a death.
32:25
Speaker 1: The Colorado victory referred to so casually in her diary
32:29
Speaker 1: was actually of great importance to her and her cause
32:33
Speaker 1: for carried forward the trend initiated by the admission of
32:38
Speaker 1: Wyoming as a woman's suffrage state in eighteen ninety. Colorado
32:43
Speaker 1: also proved to her that her girls could take over
32:47
Speaker 1: her work. So busy had she been winning good will
32:51
Speaker 1: for the cause at the World's Fair that she had
32:54
Speaker 1: left Colorado in the capable hands of the women of
32:57
Speaker 1: the state and of young ifeae efficient Carrie Chapman cat
33:02
Speaker 1: to whom she now turned over the supervision of all
33:06
Speaker 1: state campaigns. Encouragement also came from another part of the world,
33:11
Speaker 1: from New Zealand, where the vote was extended to women.
33:15
Speaker 1: This confirmed her growing conviction that equal citizenship was best
33:20
Speaker 1: understood on the frontier, and that in her own country
33:24
Speaker 1: victory would come from the west. End of Chapter twenty
33:30
Speaker 1: two