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

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five of Susan b Anthony by all Maluts.
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Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty
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Speaker 1: five Passing on the Torch. The last year of Susan's
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Speaker 1: presidency was particularly precious to her in a sense it
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Speaker 1: represented her farewell to the work she had carried on
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Speaker 1: most of her life, and at the same time it
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Speaker 1: was also the hopeful beginning of the period leading to victory.
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Speaker 1: Yet she had no illusion of speedy or easy success
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Speaker 1: for her girls, and she did her best to prepare
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Speaker 1: them for the obstacles they would inevitably meet. She warned
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Speaker 1: them not to expect their cause to triumph merely because
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Speaker 1: it was just governments. She told them, never do any
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Speaker 1: great good things from mere principle, from mere love of justice.
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Speaker 1: You expect too much of human nature when you expect
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Speaker 1: that the movement had reached an impasse. The temper of Congress,
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Speaker 1: as shown by the admission of Hawaii as a territory
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Speaker 1: without women's suffrage, was both indifferent and hostile. That this
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Speaker 1: attitude did not express the will of the American people,
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Speaker 1: she was firmly convinced it was due, she believed, to
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Speaker 1: the political influence of powerful groups opposed to women's suffrage,
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Speaker 1: the liquor interests controlling the votes of increasing numbers of immigrants,
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Speaker 1: machine politicians fearful of losing their power, and financial interests
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Speaker 1: whose conservatism resisted any measure which might upset the status quo.
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Speaker 1: How to undermine this opposition was now her main problem,
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Speaker 1: and she saw no other way but persistent agitation through
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Speaker 1: a more active, more effective, ever growing women's suffrage organization,
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Speaker 1: reaching a wider cross section of the people. She herself
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Speaker 1: had established a press bureau which was feeding interesting, factual
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Speaker 1: articles on women's suffrage to newspapers throughout the country. For,
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Speaker 1: as she wrote, Missus Colby, the suffrage cause needs to
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Speaker 1: picture its demands in the daily papers, where the unconverted
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Speaker 1: can see them, rather than in special papers where only
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Speaker 1: those already converted can see them. Of greatest importance to
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Speaker 1: her was winning the support of organized Labour. Samuel Gompers,
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Speaker 1: the President of the American Federation of Labour, had already
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Speaker 1: shown his friendliness toward equal pay and votes for women,
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Speaker 1: and was putting women organizers in the field to speed
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Speaker 1: the unionization of women. Even so, she was surprised at
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Speaker 1: the enthusiasm with which She was received at the American
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Speaker 1: Federation of Labor convention in eighteen ninety nine, when the
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Speaker 1: four hundred delegates, by a rising vote, adopted a strong
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Speaker 1: resolution urging favorable action on a federal women's suffrage amendment.
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Speaker 1: So far as possible, she had always established friendly relations
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Speaker 1: with labor organizations, first in eighteen sixty nine with William H.
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Speaker 1: Sylvis's National Labor Union, and then with the Knights of
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Speaker 1: Labor and their leader, Terence V. Powderly. When Eugene V. Debs,
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Speaker 1: president of the American Railway Union, was arrested during the
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Speaker 1: Pullman strike in eighteen ninety four for day defying a
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Speaker 1: court injunction, she did not rate him, as so many did,
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Speaker 1: a dangerous radical, but as an earnest reformer crusading for
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Speaker 1: an unpopular cause. They had met years before in Terre Hawk,
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Speaker 1: where at his request, she had lectured on women's suffrage,
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Speaker 1: and immediately they had won each other's sympathy and respect.
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Speaker 1: She did not see indications of anarchy in the pullman
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Speaker 1: and homestead strikes or in the Hay Market riot, but
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Speaker 1: regarded them as an unfortunate phase of an industrial revolution,
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Speaker 1: which in time would improve the relations of labor and capital.
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Speaker 1: That women would be effected by this industrial revolution was
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Speaker 1: obvious to her, and she wanted them to understand it
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Speaker 1: and play their part in it. For this reason, she
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Speaker 1: saw the importance of keeping the National a mair Merican
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Speaker 1: Women Suffrage Association informed on all developments affecting wage earning women,
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Speaker 1: and to her delight, she found three young suffragists wide
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Speaker 1: awake on this subject. One of them, Florence Kelley, had
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Speaker 1: joined forces with that remarkable young woman Jane Adams in
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Speaker 1: her valuable social experiment Hull House in the slums of Chicago,
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Speaker 1: and was now devoting herself to improving the working conditions
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Speaker 1: of women and children. She represented a new trend in
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Speaker 1: thought and work social service which made a great appeal
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Speaker 1: to college women and set in motion labor legislation designed
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Speaker 1: to protect women and children. Another young woman of promise,
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Speaker 1: Gail Laughlin, pioneering as a lawyer, approached the subject from
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Speaker 1: the feminist viewpoint, seeking protection for willy women not through
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Speaker 1: labor legislation based on sex, but through trade unions, the vote,
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Speaker 1: equal pay, and a wider recognition of women's right to
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Speaker 1: contract for their labor on the same terms as men.
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Speaker 1: Her survey of women's working conditions, presented at a convention
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Speaker 1: of the National American Association, was so valuable and attracted
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Speaker 1: so much attention that she was appointed to the United
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Speaker 1: States Labor Commission. Harriet Stanton Blatch also understood the significance
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Speaker 1: of the Industrial Revolution and women's part in it, and
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Speaker 1: she too opposed labor legislation based on sex. Coming from
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Speaker 1: England occasionally to visit her mother in New York, she
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Speaker 1: brought her liberal viewpoint into women's suffrage conventions with a
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Speaker 1: flare of oratory matching that of her gifted parents. The
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Speaker 1: more I see of her, Susan remarked to a friend,
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Speaker 1: the more I feel the greatness of her character. Although
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Speaker 1: it was Susan's intention to hew to the line of
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Speaker 1: women's suffrage and not to comment publicly on controversial issues,
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Speaker 1: she could not keep silent when confronted with injustice. Religious intolerance, bigotry,
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Speaker 1: and racial discrimination always forced her to take a stand,
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Speaker 1: regardless of the criticism she might bring on herself. The
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Speaker 1: treatment of the negro and both the North and the South,
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Speaker 1: was always of great concern to her, and during the
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Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, when a veritable epidemic of lynchings and race
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Speaker 1: riots broke out, she expressed herself freely in Rochester newspapers.
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Speaker 1: She noted the dangerous trend as indicated by new anti
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Speaker 1: Negro societies and the limitation of membership to white Americans
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Speaker 1: in the Spanish American War Veterans Organization. Whenever the opportunity
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Speaker 1: presented itself, she put into practice her own sincere belief
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Speaker 1: in race equality. During every Washington convention, she arranged to
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Speaker 1: have one of her good speakers occupy the pulpit of
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Speaker 1: a Negro church. And in the South, she made it
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Speaker 1: a point to speak herself in Negro churches and schools
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Speaker 1: and before their organizations, even though this might prejudice Southerners.
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Speaker 1: In her own home, she gladly welcomed the Negro lecturers
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Speaker 1: and educators who came to Rochester. This seeking out of
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Speaker 1: the Negro in friendliness was a religious duty to her
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Speaker 1: and a pleasure. She demanded of every one employed in
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Speaker 1: her household respectful treatment of Negro guests. She rejoiced when
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Speaker 1: she saw negroes in the audience at women's suffrage conventions
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Speaker 1: in Washington, and it gave her great satisfaction to hear
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Speaker 1: Mary Church Terrell a beautiful, intelligent Negro who had been
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Speaker 1: educated at Oberlin and in Europe, making speeches which equaled
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Speaker 1: and even surpassed those of the most eloquent white suffragists.
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Speaker 1: Susan did not fail to keep in touch with the
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Speaker 1: international feminist movement, and in the summer of eighteen ninety nine,
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Speaker 1: when she was seventy nine years old, she headed the
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Speaker 1: United States delegation to the International Council of Women meeting
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Speaker 1: in London. Visiting Harriet Stanton Blatch at her home and Bassingstoke,
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Speaker 1: she first conferred with the leading British feminists, bringing herself
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Speaker 1: up to date on the progress of their cause. In England.
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Speaker 1: As in the United States, the burden of the suffrage
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Speaker 1: campaign had shifted from the shoulders of the pioneers to
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Speaker 1: their daughters, and they were carrying on with vigor, pressing
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Speaker 1: for the passage of a franchise bill in the House
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Speaker 1: of Commons. Moving on to London, she was acclaimed as
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Speaker 1: she had been at the World's Fair in Chicago. The
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Speaker 1: papers here have been going wild over Miss Anthony, declaring
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Speaker 1: her to be the most unaggressive women's suffragist ever seen,
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Speaker 1: reported a journalist to his newspaper, in the United States,
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Speaker 1: from China, India, New Zealand and Australia, from South Africa, Palestine,
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Speaker 1: Persia and the Argentine, as well as from Europe and
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Speaker 1: the United States. Women had come to London to discuss
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Speaker 1: their progress and their problems, and Susan, pointing out to
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Speaker 1: them the goal toward which they must head, declared with confidence,
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Speaker 1: the day will come when man will recognize women as
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Speaker 1: is peer, not only at the fireside, but in the
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Speaker 1: councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will
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Speaker 1: there be perfect comradeship between the sexes that shall result
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Speaker 1: in the highest development of the race. She had hoped
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Speaker 1: that Queen Victoria would receive the delegates at Windsor Castle,
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Speaker 1: thus indicating her approval of the International Council. She longed
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Speaker 1: to talk with this woman who had ruled so long
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Speaker 1: and so well that a queen sat on the throne
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Speaker 1: of England. This in itself was important to her, and
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Speaker 1: she wanted to express her gratitude. Although she was well
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Speaker 1: aware that the Queen had never used her influence for
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Speaker 1: the improvement of laws relating to women. She had hoped
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Speaker 1: to convince her of the need of votes for women,
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Speaker 1: but Queen Victoria never gave her the opportunity. All that
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Speaker 1: influential Englishwoman were able to arrange was the admission of
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Speaker 1: the delegates to the courtyard of Windsor Castle to watch
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Speaker 1: the Queen start on her drive and to tea in
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Speaker 1: the banquet room, without the Queen returning home. Late in
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Speaker 1: August eighteen ninety nine, Susan began at once to make
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Speaker 1: definite plans to turn over the presidency of the National
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Speaker 1: American Women's Suffrage Association to a younger woman. Although she
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Speaker 1: well knew that the choice of her successor was actually
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Speaker 1: in the hands of the membership, it was her intention
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Speaker 1: to do what she could within the bounds of democratic
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Speaker 1: procedure to insure the best possible leadership To fill the office.
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Speaker 1: She turned instinctively to Anna Howard Shaw, whom she loved
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Speaker 1: more dearly as the years went by, and whose selfless
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Speaker 1: devotion to the cause she trusted implicitly. Yet Anna, in
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Speaker 1: spite of her many qualifications, lacked a few which were
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Speaker 1: exceptional in Carrie Chapman cat creative executive ability, a diplomacy,
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Speaker 1: a talent for working with people, directing them and winning
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Speaker 1: their devotion. With growing admiration, Susan had been watching missus
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Speaker 1: Katt's indefatigable work in the States, where she had been
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Speaker 1: building up active branches. Her flare for raising money was outstanding,
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Speaker 1: and Susan realized, as few others did, the crying need
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Speaker 1: of funds for the campaigns ahead. In addition, missus Cat
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Speaker 1: had no personal fire financial worries for her husband, successful
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Speaker 1: in business, was sympathetic to her work. Anna, on the
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Speaker 1: other hand, would have to support herself by lecturing and
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Speaker 1: Carrie as well the burden of the presidency of a
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Speaker 1: rapidly growing organization. Anna made the decision for Susan. She
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Speaker 1: urged the candidacy of missus Cat, although her highest ambition
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Speaker 1: had always been to succeed her beloved aunt Susan. As
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Speaker 1: she later confessed to Susan, this was a personal sacrifice
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Speaker 1: which cost her many a heartache, but she honestly felt
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Speaker 1: that missus Cat was better fitted as well as freer
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Speaker 1: to go into an unpaid field. Susan therefore approached missus
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Speaker 1: Cat through Rachel and Harriet Upton, and was relieved when
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Speaker 1: she consented to stand for election. Of Susan's retirement aroused
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Speaker 1: ambitions in Lily Devereux Blake, who, from the point of
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Speaker 1: seniority and devoted work in New York, was regarded as
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Speaker 1: being next in line for the presidency by Missus Stanton
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Speaker 1: and Missus Colby. Unable to visualize Missus Blake as the
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Speaker 1: leader of this large organization with its diverse, strong personalities,
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Speaker 1: Susan nevertheless conceded her right to compete for the office.
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Speaker 1: Although she appreciated Missus Blake's valuable work for the cause,
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Speaker 1: there never had been understanding or sympathy between them. Temperamentally,
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Speaker 1: the blunt, stern New Englander with untiring drive had little
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Speaker 1: in common with the Southern beauty turned reformer. A change
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Speaker 1: in the presidency needed wise and patient handling, as personal ambitions, prejudices,
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Speaker 1: and misunderstand reared their heads. When there were murmurings of
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Speaker 1: secession among a small group if Missus cat were elected,
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Speaker 1: Susan wrote Missus Colby that such talk was very immature,
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Speaker 1: very despotic, very undemocratic, and she hoped she was not
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Speaker 1: one of the malecontents. Another problem was the future of
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Speaker 1: the Organization Committee, which under Missus Catt's chairmanship, had carried
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Speaker 1: on a large part of the work. Its influence was
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Speaker 1: considerable and could readily develop so as to conflict with
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Speaker 1: that of the officers, thus threatening the unity of the
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Speaker 1: whole organization. To dissolve the committee seemed to Susan and
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Speaker 1: her closest advisers the wisest procedure. Mary Garrett Hay, who
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Speaker 1: had worked closely with Missus Catt on the organization Committee,
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Speaker 1: opposed this plan. After earnest discussion, the officers, including Missus Cat,
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Speaker 1: agreed to dissolve the organization Committee. As Susan appeared on
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Speaker 1: the platform at the opening session of the Washington Convention
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Speaker 1: in February nineteen hundred, there was thunderous applause from an
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Speaker 1: audience tense with emotion at the thought of losing the
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Speaker 1: leader who had guided them for so many years. The tall,
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Speaker 1: gray haired woman in black satin, with soft, rich lace
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Speaker 1: at her throat and the proverbial red shawl about her
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Speaker 1: shoulders had become the symbol of their cause. Now, as
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Speaker 1: she looked down upon them with a friendly smile and
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Speaker 1: motherly tenderness, tears came to their eyes, and they wanted
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Speaker 1: to remember always just how she looked at that moment.
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Speaker 1: Then she broke the tension with a call to duty,
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Speaker 1: a summons to press for the federal Amendment, and one
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Speaker 1: more plea that they always hold their annual conventions in
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Speaker 1: the national capital. Difficult and sad as this sufficial leave
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Speaker 1: taking was, she had made up her mind to carry
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Speaker 1: it through with good cheer. Tirelessly, she presided at three
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Speaker 1: sessions daily with the pride of a mother. She listened
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Speaker 1: to the many reports, and with particular satisfaction to that
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Speaker 1: of the Treasurer, which showed all debts paid and pledges
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Speaker 1: amounting to ten thousand dollars to start the new year.
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Speaker 1: Susan herself had made this possible, raising enough to pay
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Speaker 1: past debts and securing pledges so that the new administration
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Speaker 1: could start its work free from financial worries. I have
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Speaker 1: fully determined to retire from the active presidency of the Association,
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Speaker 1: she announced when the reports and speeches were over. I
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Speaker 1: am not retiring now because I feel unable mentally or
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Speaker 1: physically to do the necessary work, but because I wish
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Speaker 1: to see the organization in the hands of those who
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Speaker 1: are to have its management in the future. I want
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Speaker 1: to see you all at work while I am alive,
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Speaker 1: so I can scold you if you do not do
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Speaker 1: it well. Give the matter of selecting your officer's serious thought.
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Speaker 1: Consider who will do the best work for the political
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Speaker 1: enfranchisement of women, and let no personal feelings enter into
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Speaker 1: the question. Watching developments with the keen eye of a politician,
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Speaker 1: she was confident that Missus Cat would be elected to
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Speaker 1: succeed her, although Missus Blake's candidacy was still being assiduously pressed,
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Speaker 1: and circulars recommending her, signed by Missus Stanton, Missus Russell Sage,
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Speaker 1: and doctor Mary Putt and Jacoby were being widely distributed.
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Speaker 1: Just before the balloting, however, Missus Blake withdrew her name
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Speaker 1: in the interest of harmony. This left the field to
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Speaker 1: Missus Cat, who received two hundred and fifty four votes
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Speaker 1: of the two hundred and seventy eight cast. A burst
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Speaker 1: of applause greeted the announcement of Missus Catt's election, then
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Speaker 1: abruptly it stopped as the realization swept over the delegates
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Speaker 1: that Aunt Susan was no longer their president. Walking to
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Speaker 1: the front of the platform, Susan took Missus Cat by
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Speaker 1: the hand, and while the delegates applauded, the two women
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Speaker 1: stood before them, the one showing in her kind face,
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Speaker 1: the experience and wisdom of years, the other young, intelligent
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Speaker 1: and beautiful, her life still before her. There were tears
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Speaker 1: in Susan's eyes and her voice was unsteady as she said,
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Speaker 1: I am sure you have made a wise choice. New
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Speaker 1: conditions bring new duties. These new duties, these changed conditions,
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Speaker 1: demand stronger hands, younger heads, and fresher hearts. In missus Cat,
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Speaker 1: you have my ideal leader. I present to you my successor.
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Speaker 1: Susan's joyous confidence in the new administration was rudely jolted
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Speaker 1: as controversy over the future of the Organization Committee flared
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Speaker 1: up during the last days of the convention. Under strong
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Speaker 1: pressure from Mary Garrett Hay, missus Cat had counseled with
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Speaker 1: Henry Blackwell, and at one of the last sessions he
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Speaker 1: had slipped in emotion, authorizing the continuance of the Organization Committee.
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Speaker 1: Stunned by this development and looking upon it as a
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Speaker 1: threat to the harmony of the new administration, Susan, supported
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Speaker 1: by Harriet Upton and Rachel, prepared to take action, and
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Speaker 1: the next morning, at the first post convention Executive Committee meeting,
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Speaker 1: at which missus Cat presided, Susan proposed that the National Officers,
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Speaker 1: headed by Missus Catt, take over the duties of the
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Speaker 1: Organization Committee. This precipitated a heated debate, during which Henry
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Speaker 1: Blackwell and his daughter Alice called such procedure unconstitutional, and
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Speaker 1: Mary Hay resigned. As the discussion became too acrimonious, Missus
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Speaker 1: Cat put an end to it by calling up unfinished business,
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Speaker 1: and thus managed to steer the remainder of the session
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Speaker 1: into less troubled waters. The next day, however, Susan brought
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Speaker 1: the matter up again, and on her motion, the Organization
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Speaker 1: Committee was voted out of existence, with praise for its
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Speaker 1: admirable record of service. Here were all the makings of
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Speaker 1: a factional feud, which, if fanned into flame, could have
23:15
Speaker 1: well split the National American Association. Not only had the
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Speaker 1: old organization interfered with the new in directly reprimanding missus Cat,
23:26
Speaker 1: but Susan, by her own personal influence and determination, had
23:31
Speaker 1: reversed the action of the Convention. As a result, Missus
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Speaker 1: Cat was indignant, hurt, and sorely tempted to resign, but
23:42
Speaker 1: after sending a highly critical letter to every member of
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Speaker 1: the Business Committee, she took up her work with vigor
23:50
Speaker 1: disappointed and heartsick over the turn of events, Susan searched
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Speaker 1: for a way to re establish harmony and her own
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Speaker 1: faith in her successor, Realizing that a mother's cool counsel
24:04
Speaker 1: and guiding hand were needed to heal the misunderstandings, and
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Speaker 1: convinced that unity and trust could be restored only by
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Speaker 1: frank discussion of the problem by those involved, she asked
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Speaker 1: for a meeting of the business committee at her home.
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Speaker 1: What can we do to get back into trust in
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Speaker 1: each other, she wrote, Laura Clay. That is the thing
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Speaker 1: we must do somehow, and it cannot be done by letter.
24:34
Speaker 1: We must hold a meeting and we must have you
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Speaker 1: and every single one of our members at it. Impatient
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Speaker 1: at what to her seemed unnecessary delay, she kept prodding
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Speaker 1: missus Cat to call this meeting. Fortunately, both Susan and
24:52
Speaker 1: missus Cat were genuinely fond of each other and placed
24:56
Speaker 1: the welfare of the cause above personal differences. Both were
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Speaker 1: tolerant and steady and understood the pressures put on the
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Speaker 1: leader of a great organization. Anxious and troubled as she
25:09
Speaker 1: waited for this meeting, Susan appreciated Anna Shaw's visits as
25:14
Speaker 1: never before marking them as read letter days on her calendar.
25:20
Speaker 1: Late in August nineteen hundred, all the officers finally gathered
25:26
Speaker 1: at seventeen Madison Street, and Susan listened to their discussions
25:30
Speaker 1: with deep concern. She was confident she could rely completely
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Speaker 1: upon Harriet Upton, Rachel and Anna, and could count on
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Speaker 1: Laura Clay's level head and good common sense. She never
25:45
Speaker 1: felt sure of Alice Stone Blackwell, and knew there was
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Speaker 1: great sympathy and often a working alliance between her, her
25:53
Speaker 1: father and Missus Cat of the latest member of the
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Speaker 1: official family, Catherine wah McCullough. She had little first hand
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Speaker 1: knowledge Missus Cat, whom she longed to fathom and trust,
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Speaker 1: was still an enigma. During those hot, humid August days,
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Speaker 1: misunderstandings were healed, unity was restored, and Susan was reassured
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Speaker 1: that not a single one of her girls desired other
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Speaker 1: than was good for the work. Susan had always been
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Speaker 1: a champion of co education, speaking for it as early
26:31
Speaker 1: as the eighteen fifties at state teachers meetings and proposing
26:35
Speaker 1: it for Columbia University in her revolution in eighteen ninety one,
26:41
Speaker 1: she and Missus Stanton had agitated for the admission of
26:45
Speaker 1: women to the University of Rochester. Seven years later, the
26:49
Speaker 1: trustees consented to admit women provided one hundred thousand dollars
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Speaker 1: could be raised in a year, and Susan served on
26:58
Speaker 1: the fund raising commitdity with her friend Helen Barrett Montgomery.
27:04
Speaker 1: Because the alumni of the University of Rochester opposed co
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Speaker 1: education and the city's wealthiest men were indifferent, progress was slow,
27:14
Speaker 1: but the trustees were persuaded to extend the time and
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Speaker 1: to reduce by one half the amount to be raised.
27:23
Speaker 1: With so much else on her mind in nineteen hundred,
27:26
Speaker 1: including the sudden death of her brother Merrit, she had
27:30
Speaker 1: given the fund little thought until the committee appealed to
27:33
Speaker 1: her in desperation, when only one day remained in which
27:38
Speaker 1: to raise the last eight thousand dollars. Immediately, she went
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Speaker 1: into action. Remembering that Mary had talked of willing the
27:47
Speaker 1: university two thousand dollars if it became co educational, she
27:52
Speaker 1: persuaded her to pledge that amount now, then setting out
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Speaker 1: in a carriage on a very hot September more warning,
28:00
Speaker 1: she slowly collected pledges for all but two thousand dollars.
28:06
Speaker 1: As the trustees were in session and likely to adjourn
28:10
Speaker 1: any minute. She appealed to Samuel Wylder, one of Rochester's
28:15
Speaker 1: prominent elder citizens, who had already contributed, to guarantee that
28:20
Speaker 1: amount until she could raise it. To this he gladly agreed,
28:26
Speaker 1: reaching the trustees meeting with Missus Montgomery just in time
28:30
Speaker 1: with pledges assuring the payment of the full fifty thousand dollars.
28:35
Speaker 1: She was amazed at their reception. Instead of rejoicing with them,
28:40
Speaker 1: the trustees began to quibble over Samuel Wylder's guarantee of
28:46
Speaker 1: the last two thousand dollars because of the state of
28:49
Speaker 1: his health. When she offered her life insurance as security,
28:53
Speaker 1: they still put her off, telling her to come back
28:57
Speaker 1: in a few days. Even then, they continued to quibble,
29:02
Speaker 1: but finally admitted that the woman had won. Disillusioned, she
29:07
Speaker 1: wrote in her diary, not a trustee has given anything.
29:12
Speaker 1: Although there are several millionaires among them, only her life
29:16
Speaker 1: insurance policy and her dogged persistence had saved the day.
29:22
Speaker 1: This effort to open Rochester University to women on top
29:27
Speaker 1: of a very full and worrisome year, was so taxing
29:31
Speaker 1: and so disillusioning that she became seriously ill. When she
29:36
Speaker 1: recovered sufficiently for a drive, she asked to be taken
29:40
Speaker 1: to the university campus, and afterward wrote in her diary,
29:45
Speaker 1: as I drove over the campus, I felt, these are
29:49
Speaker 1: not forbidden grounds to the girls of the city any longer.
29:54
Speaker 1: It is good to feel that the old doors sway
29:57
Speaker 1: on their hinges to women. Will the vows be kept
30:01
Speaker 1: to them? Will the girls have equal chances with the
30:04
Speaker 1: boys they promised? Well, the fulfillment will be seen. Whether
30:10
Speaker 1: there shall not be some hitch from the proposed to
30:13
Speaker 1: a separate school. Still keeping her watchful eye on the
30:19
Speaker 1: National American Association, Susan traveled to Minneapolis in the spring
30:24
Speaker 1: of nineteen o one for the first annual convention under
30:28
Speaker 1: the new administration. There was talk of an entire new deal,
30:33
Speaker 1: the retirement of all who had served under Miss Anthony,
30:38
Speaker 1: and the election of a new cabinet of officers, and
30:42
Speaker 1: Susan was so concerned that there might also be a
30:45
Speaker 1: change in the presidency that she felt she must be
30:48
Speaker 1: on hand to guide and steady the proceedings. Missus Cat
30:53
Speaker 1: was re elected, and Susan returned to Rochester well satisfied
30:58
Speaker 1: and ready to devote herself to completing the fourth volume
31:02
Speaker 1: of the History of Women's Suffrage, on which she and
31:06
Speaker 1: missus Harper had been working intermittently for the past year.
31:10
Speaker 1: It was published late in nineteen o two. While working
31:14
Speaker 1: on the history, Susan, although more than satisfied with Missus
31:19
Speaker 1: Harper's work, often thought nostalgically of her happy, stimulating years
31:25
Speaker 1: of collaboration with Missus Stanton. She seldom saw Missus Stanton now,
31:30
Speaker 1: but they kept in touch with each other by letter.
31:34
Speaker 1: In the spring of nineteen o two, she visited Missus
31:37
Speaker 1: Stanton twice in New York and planned to return in
31:41
Speaker 1: November to celebrate Missus Stanton's eighty seventh birthday. In anticipation,
31:47
Speaker 1: she wrote, Missus Stanton, it is fifty one years since
31:52
Speaker 1: we first met, and we have been busy, through every
31:55
Speaker 1: one of them, stirring up the world to recognize the
31:59
Speaker 1: right place of women. We little dreamed when we began
32:03
Speaker 1: this contest that half a century later we would be
32:07
Speaker 1: compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another
32:10
Speaker 1: generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy
32:14
Speaker 1: to know that they enter upon this task equipped with
32:18
Speaker 1: a college education, with business experience, with the freely admitted
32:23
Speaker 1: right to speak in public, all of which were denied
32:27
Speaker 1: to women fifty years ago. These strong, courageous, capable young
32:33
Speaker 1: women will take our place and complete our work. There
32:37
Speaker 1: is an army of them where we were but a handful.
32:42
Speaker 1: Two weeks before missus Stanton's birthday, Susan was stunned by
32:47
Speaker 1: a telegram announcing that her old comrade had passed away
32:51
Speaker 1: in her chair. Bewildered and desolate, she sat alone in
32:56
Speaker 1: her study for several hours, trying bravely to endure her grief.
33:01
Speaker 1: Then came the reporters for copy, which only this heart
33:05
Speaker 1: broken woman could give. I cannot express myself at all
33:10
Speaker 1: as I feel, she haltingly told them, I'm too crushed
33:15
Speaker 1: to speak. If I had died first, she would have
33:19
Speaker 1: found beautiful phrases to describe our friendship, but I cannot
33:24
Speaker 1: put it into words. From New York, where she had
33:28
Speaker 1: gone for the funeral, she wrote in anguish to missus Harper, Oh,
33:33
Speaker 1: the voice is stilled, which I loved to hear for
33:36
Speaker 1: fifty years. Always I have felt that I must have
33:40
Speaker 1: Missus Stanton's opinion of things. Before I knew where I
33:44
Speaker 1: stood myself. I am all at sea but the laws
33:49
Speaker 1: of nature are still going on with no shadow or turning.
33:54
Speaker 1: What a wonder it is. It goes right on and on,
33:58
Speaker 1: no matter who lives or who dies. National Woman's Suffrage
34:05
Speaker 1: conventions were still read letter events to Susan, and she
34:09
Speaker 1: attended them, no matter how great the physical effort, traveling
34:13
Speaker 1: to New Orleans in nineteen o three. Of particular concern
34:18
Speaker 1: was the nineteen o four convention because of missus Catt's
34:22
Speaker 1: decision at the very last moment not to stand for
34:25
Speaker 1: reelection on account of her health. Looking over the field,
34:30
Speaker 1: Susan saw no one capable of taking her place, but
34:34
Speaker 1: Anna Howard Shaw. Not to be able to turn to
34:38
Speaker 1: missus Stanton's capable daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch at this time
34:43
Speaker 1: was disappointing. But Harriet's long absence in England had made
34:48
Speaker 1: her more or less of a stranger to the membership
34:51
Speaker 1: of the National American Association, and for some reason she
34:56
Speaker 1: did not seem to fit in, lacking her mother's warmth
34:59
Speaker 1: and appear. I don't see anybody in the whole rank
35:05
Speaker 1: of our suffrage movement to take her missus Kat's place,
35:10
Speaker 1: But you, Susan, now, wrote Anna Howard Shaw, if you
35:15
Speaker 1: will take it with a salary of say two thousand dollars,
35:19
Speaker 1: I will go ahead and try to see what I
35:21
Speaker 1: can do. We must not let the society down into
35:25
Speaker 1: feeble hands. Don't say no for the life of you,
35:30
Speaker 1: for if Missus Kat persists in going out, we shall
35:34
Speaker 1: simply have to accept it. And we must hide over
35:37
Speaker 1: with the best material that we have. And you are
35:41
Speaker 1: the best. And would you have taken office four years ago,
35:45
Speaker 1: you would have been elected overwhelmingly. Anna could not refuse
35:50
Speaker 1: Aunt Susan, and when she was elected, with missus Catt
35:53
Speaker 1: as vice president, Susan breathed freely again. It warmed Susan's
35:59
Speaker 1: heart to enter the Convention on her eighty fourth birthday
36:03
Speaker 1: to a thundering welcome, to banter with Missus Upton, who
36:07
Speaker 1: called her to the platform, and to stop the applause
36:10
Speaker 1: with a smile, and they are now girls. That's enough.
36:16
Speaker 1: Nothing could have been more appropriate for her birthday than
36:19
Speaker 1: the Colorado jubilee, over which she presided and which gave
36:24
Speaker 1: irrefutable evidence of the success of women's suffrage in that state.
36:29
Speaker 1: There was rejoicing too over Australia, where women had been
36:34
Speaker 1: voting since nineteen o two and over the new hope
36:37
Speaker 1: in Europe. In Denmark, where women had chosen her birthday
36:41
Speaker 1: to stage a demonstration in favor of the pending franchise bill,
36:47
Speaker 1: for the last time, she spoke to a Senate committee
36:51
Speaker 1: on the Women's Suffrage Amendment. Standing before these indifferent men,
36:56
Speaker 1: a tired warrior at the end of a long, hard campaign,
37:00
Speaker 1: she reminded them that she alone remained of those who,
37:05
Speaker 1: thirty five years before, in eighteen sixty nine, had appealed
37:10
Speaker 1: to Congress for justice, and I, she added, shall not
37:15
Speaker 1: be able to come much longer. We have waited, she
37:20
Speaker 1: told them. We stood aside for the negro We waited
37:24
Speaker 1: for the millions of emigrants. Now we must wait till
37:29
Speaker 1: the Hawaiians, the Filipinos, and the Porto Ricans are enfranchised. Then,
37:35
Speaker 1: no doubt the Cubans will have their turn. For all
37:39
Speaker 1: these ignorant, alien peoples, educated women have been compelled to
37:44
Speaker 1: stand aside and wait. Then, with mounting in patience, she
37:49
Speaker 1: asked them, how long will this injustice, this outrage continue?
37:57
Speaker 1: Their answer to her was silence. They sent no report
38:01
Speaker 1: to the Senate on the Women's suffrage Amendment. Yet she
38:05
Speaker 1: was able to say to her reporter of the New
38:07
Speaker 1: York Sun, I have never lost my faith, not for
38:11
Speaker 1: a moment in fifty years. End of Chapter twenty five