Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-03-31
W0MAN'S DAY.
THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCILS PRO
CEEDIEGs YESTERDAY.
The Male Sex Excluded from the Morning
Session-Mneh Plsin Talk
INDUCED In.

sion this morning for women only, oil
male reporters being excluded. The
session opened with prayer by Mrs. Mac
Cleuand Brown, after which three stan
zas of Nearer, Ny God, to Thee" were
sung.
Mrs. Elizabeth Boynton Harbert made
an impassioned address for the establish
ment of school-houses all over the land
in close proximity TO each other and the
banishment of neutrality-suspicious. and
houses Of ill-fame. "Take away the
saloons if You wish to protect the
children. There is enough power
among the women now to demand the
right Of suffrage, and women OF suffrage
belief should rally about statesmen who
will enfranchise women and stand up for
prohibition and social purity"
Mrs. Harbert was followed by Eliza
beth Lyle Saxon, cice-president OF the
National Woman Suffrage Association
Of Tennessee. Mrs Saxon spoke plainly
Of the social evil aud of the remlssness
Of women in not confiding TO their chill
dren the great secrets and truths OF NE
instead of letting them learn such things
from children and servants.
Anna Rice Powell, of the New York
Commission for the Prevention OF State
Regulation OF Vice, introduced her sub
ject by saving that it had been asserted
that the history of prostitution is the his
tory Of woman, but she hes always been
it's victim. she spoke OF the age OF pro
lection in the various states, and PAID
tribute to Kansas as having made that
aye eighteen years, while IN one state 1t
was as low as seven years.
Mrs. Ormlston Chant was then intro
duced. She has been engaged in this
work for twenty-five years. She vouched
for the truthfulness Of Mr.. Stead's
charges as published in the Pall-Mall
Gu.cHc, saying that she would stake her
lie on their correctness. She spoke
principally Of the work of social-purity
societies in Great Britain. She de-
nounced the British Governments Blue
Book as containing stories OF the wrong
doings of peers Of Great Britain even
worse than those published in the Pail
Mall G0eeHe. Mrs Chants address was
enthusiastically received 10y the audi
ence. She represents in the council tine
Edinburgh National Society for Woman
Suffrage
Mrs Caroline VI. S. Frazar, OF the
National Moral Educational Society, and
DR.. Caroline i. Wiuslow, delegate from
the District Of Columbia Moral Educa-
tional Society, spoke upon the "Ihe
Starting Point"
Harriet b. Shattuck said that wrong
to one was a wrong to all, and that no
woman had a right to forgive a man who
had done q wrong TO another woman.
She also discussed briefly the question
Of marriage and divorce. Marriage, she
declared. is not n contract, but an insh-
tuition Of God.
After short addresses from Madame
Groth. delegate from Norway, and Clara
c. Hoffman. Frances Willard, as a pre-
face to her remarks, read petition to
be signed 10y the women Of the council
urging Congress to pass a bill to raise
the age of consent, wherever 1t has alb
soiute control, toeighteen years She at
tackled blowout dresses, and said that those
wearing them borrowed the idea from
women they would be ashamed 20 touch.
She also said that in the new era half
nude pictures of women used As adver-
tsemeuts by ciear-dcalcrs would not stay
in windows overnight. Shcalso touched
upon the improperly OF stoSe-dressmg
and the evils of rOund-d2nclng.
The opera-house has seating capacity
Of 2.200. but at least 1900 women at
tended the morning session.
Standing room was 1t premium when
the evening session began. he theme
for discussion was "Politicll Condition
and Woman's Right to the Ballot" The
first address was by Mrs. Isabella
Beecher Hooker, Of Connecticut, who
spoke on the " fight OF Women to Vote
under the National Constitution" She
asserted that the words "the people,
everywhere used in the Constitution
showed that it was tho intention OF its
trainers to place women on perfect
equality with men. She appealed to
women TO clam, and wherever they were
able to exercise, the right to vote and
also appealed TO the men to remove the
barriers Of unjust and unconstitutional
legislation that now stand III the way Oh
womaus suffrage.
Mrs. Foster said that woman was
already in politics and that the only
thing TO be determined now was whether
she should continue to exert influence IN
every way except the baliot-boX The
denials Of woman's right to vote was q
defiance Of the nineteelth-century ciylll-
zation. The women OF the United
states. she said, would never cease this
AGITATION unhllibcrty OF heart, head, and
hand is secured to every citizen OF the
republic, and when that time came She
pledged moral ana material support 20
her sisters of other countries. The Oh
lection that women were not fitted for
politics applied only 10 the villainies OF
New York politics They did not under
take the buying and selling OF votes !;
they did not know anything about sa-
loon politics, but they were yersed IN
higher politics, to which we were
coming.
Mrs. Harriet II. Robinson's subject
was The Present Attitude Of Political
Parties Toward Woman Suffrage" No
thing. she said, was to be- expected from
either OF the two leading political par
ties. 1.-The Prohibition party Is very
good about passing resolutions in our
favor, but it has as yet no political power,
and the majority OF its members usually
vote the Republican ticket. We do
not count a great deal on its help Since
such is the attitude Of the parties to-
ward woman suffrage our only hope
seems to be the formation OF a new
party. which shall advocate our own with
other leading reforms. The old parties
are slowly dying out. The young men
of to-day. or many Of them, are III
terested in something besides discussing
what the 81. O. p has done or what
wicked Democrats did before tue last
war They are thinking of temperance
legislation, labor reform, free trade, and
the woman question and they Will tiud
a field in which to work for these issues. -
Mrs. Martha A. Everett, representing
tbe Massachusetts School-Sulfrage Assoc
citation. said that the Bay-State law al
to,,;,c, women To vote in school affairs