The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-31
MAN AS W0MAN'S ENEMY.
SEXUAL SINFULNESS UNDER FIRE
IN THE COUNCIL.

/ saloons ana Houses OF 1ll-Falne Must
be Kept from the Vicinity of the
School Houses Raising of the Age
of Consent Favored-Pall Mall Ga
zette Charges Revived.
WASHINGTON. March 30.-The Interna-
tional Council of Women held a session this
morning for women only, all male reporters
being excluded.
The session was opened with prayer by
Mrs. Mcclellan Brown, after which
three stanzas of Nearer, My 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 ban
ishment of drinking saloons and houses of
ill fame. Take away the saloons if you
wish toprotect the children. There is enough
power among 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"
THE SOCIAL EVIL.
Mrs. Harbert was followed by Elizabeth
Lisle Saxon, Nice President of the National
see. Mrs. Saxon spoke plainly of the social
! evil and of the remissness of women in not
confiding to their children the great secrets
and truths Of life, instead of letting them
learn such things from children and serv-
ants.
Anna Rice Powell, Of the New York
Commission for the Prevention and
State Regulation of Vice, introduced her
subject by saying that it had been asserted
that the history of prostitution is the his
| tory of woman, but she has always been its
victim. She spoke of the age of protection
in various States, and paid a tribute to
Kansas as having made that age Is years
while in one State is was as low as Z years
PAIL MALL GAZETTE CHARGES REVIVED
Mrs. Ormiston 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 Pal Mall Gazette, saying
that she would stake her life on their cor
rectness. She spoke principally of the work
| of the social purity societies in Great Britain
She denounced the British governments
Blue Book as containing stories of the
wrong doings of peers of Great Britain
even worse than those publishe in the Pau
Mall Gazette. One member of Parliament,
when the question of increasing the age at
which consent could be given was being
| dBIUdU6u, Shlu UUdJ IOT puIb ne WloHeQ IL
was ten years The ladies of his borough
got together, and made it SO hot for him
that he had to get out. Mrs. Chants ad-
dress was enthusiastically received by the
audience. She represents in the council the
Edinburgh National Society for Women
Suffrage.
Mrs. Caroline S. Frazar, Of the National
Moral Educational Society and DR.. Caro-
line B. Winslow, delegate from the District
| of Columbia Moral E1ucotioual Sociatu
spoke upon 1.-The Starting Point"
A WRONG TO ONE A WRONG TO ALL.
Harriet b. Shattuck said that a wrong to
one was a wrong to all, and that no woman
had a right to forgive man who had done
a wrong to another woman. She also dis
cussed briefly the question of marriage and
divorce. Marriage, she declared, is
not a contract, but an institution of God.
After short address from Mime. Groth,
delegate from Norway, and Clara Choff-
man, Frances Willard, as preface to her
remarks, read a petition to be signed by the
women of the council urging Congress to
pass bill to raise the age Of consent wher-
ever it has absolute control to Is years.
She attacked low cut dresses, and said that
those wearing them borrowed the idea from
women whom she would be ashamed to
touch. She also said that in the new era
half-nude pictures Of women used as adver-
tisements by cigar dealers, would not stay
in the windows overnight. She also touched
| upon the Improperly OF stage dressing and
| the evils of round dancing.
The Opera House has a seating capacity
of 2,200 but at least 3, 600 women attended
the morning session.
woMAN's RIGHT TO THE BALLOT
Standing room was at premium when
the evening session began. The theme for
discussion was: political Conditions, and
Woman's Right to the Ballot"
The first address was by Mrs. Isabella
Beecher Hooker, of Connecticut, who spoke
on "The Right Of Women to Vote Under
the National Constitution" She asserted
that the words ''the people, u
everywhere used in the consti-
tuition, showed that it was
the intention of its trainers to place women
on a perfect equality with men. The State
legislation which made sex condition pre-
cedent to voting for members Of Congress,
she insisted, was unconstitutional and void.
PRECEDENT AND PREJUDICE.
Precedent, prejudice, custom and blind
| conservatisms were the only real barriers
against woman's right to take part III gov
ernment affairs She appealed to women
to claim, and wherever they were able, to
exercise the right TO vote, and also appealed
| to men 10 remove the barriers of unjust and
unconstitutional legislation that now stand
in the way of woman suffrage.
Mrs. Foster said that woman was already
in politics, and that the only thing TO be
determined was whether she should CON
tinue TO exert influence in every way except
the ballot box.
DEFIANCE OF CIVILIZATION
Denial of woman's right 10 vote was de-
fiance of the nineteenth century's civiliza-
tion. The women Of the United States, she
said would never cease this agitation until
liberty Of heart, head and hand is secured
to every citizen Of the republic, and when
that time came she pledged moral and
material support TO her sisters Of other
countries. The objection that women were
not fitted for politics applied only to the
! yillauies of New York politics. They did
! not undertake the buying and selling of
votes, they did not know anything about
| saloon politics, but they were veised in the
higher politics TO which we were coming.
! The salcon she declared, in conclusion,
would never go out Of America 10 stay out
until women nad the right 10 vote.
ATTITUDE OF THE PARTIES.
Mrs. Harriet H. Robinson's subject was
! the present attitude of the political parties
toward woman suffrage Nothing, She said,
was 10 be expected from either Of the two
leading political parties. The Prohibition
party IS very good about passing resolutions
! In our favor, but it has as yet no
political power, and majority y
!