The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-03-27

/. in.calling the meeting TO order. said that the
specific purpose calling the council together
this year. and in this city, was because just
forty Tears ago the first convention called oy
the women held in this country The call
for the meeting forty years ago. she said. II she
remembered rightly, had signatures to it.
but nevertheless the two moving spirits in orig
inating and carrying the work were those
of Lucretia Mott, the saiDtsd Lucre-
tia Mott and Elizabeth CadY Stanton.
who was with them to-day. She referred, IN
passing to the progress made in forty wears.
Forty years ago women had no place anywhere
except ia the home, no hope of pecuniAry inde-
pendence Il place. or position in the world;
purpose in life except that which came through
marriage and the home They never heard such
a thing then woman earning her living in
any way except an teaching. domestic service.
or in factories. During the forty years there
had been a open sesame NO almost the entire
universe of industry. She now almost the
peer of man IN the industrial world. What
was true of work was true OF educatIon-ot
everything. Men had granted all but the pivotal
right with which the women of the country
could protect all other rights She then intro
duced Mrs Stanton, who for twenty years had
been. she said. the president of the National
Woman Suffrage Association.
Mrs Stanton read long address, In which
she reviewed the history Of women's organized de-
mand for woman suffrage and womens advance
ment in this and other countries. The initia-
tive steps in the country, she said were taken n
her native StAte-New York-nearly forty years
ago In 1S4S two conventions were held in CEN
trail New York, and the Same year the married
womans properly bill passed the Legislature.
Other conventions were soon called in Ohio. In
diana, Massachusetts. Pennsylvanis and the 9TH
States. One after another adopted New
York's advanced legislation. Thus started the
greatest movement for human liberty recorded
on the page OF history; a demand for freedom
to half the entire race, and the
key note struck In this country in
I648 had been echoed round the world.
Mrs. Stanton. at several points in her address.
drifted away from her manuscript and sailed out
- 49, -s.~I.~ - .4A~xv H.
said she could not fully agree with Miss An
tbony as to the degree of freedom women had
attained. They were by no means so near OBJ
tanning all they demanded as some women
thought. She referred to the fact that, re-
Gently, women had been denied admission to a
college in Cleveland. Their claims could not be
said to have been granted when colleges were
closed TO than. When she reached the point
where she said women but the echoes of
men," Mrs. Stanton stopped and said that many
persons expressed the fear that some
women, by obtaining these rights,
would be unsexed and become like men.
why. my friends" she said, I'VE have
OF the globe. We have always been mere
echoes Of the men," Speaking of the pow
erful ammunition than arguments which she
said women might use IL arguments proved in
eTectual, Mrs. Stanton again left her manu-
script Il have said, she said, Ito men of the
present day that the next generation of women
will not stand arguing with you patiently as
we have for half a century The organizations
OF labor all over the country are holding out
Gneir nandS IN women. Inc tim01 not Tar as
tant when, if men do not do justice to women,
the women will strike hands with labor. with
Socialists with Anarchists. and you will have
the scenes of the revolution in France acted
over again in this country"
At to-nights session papers relating to edu-
cation in relation to women wore read by Mrs.
May Wright Sewall, Sarah B. Cooper, Louisa
Reed Stowsll Rena A Michaels and others.
Mrs. May Wright Sewall, in the course of her
address Higher Education for Women in
the United States" said in part: I'VE are to con-
az w vVnT
through the college and the university; to re-
ascertain the present status and indicate the
work still needed. The development has been
from the boarding-school. through the female
seminary. the co-edueational academy, the fe-
male college. the woman g college up the uni
versifIes of to-day. The demand at first made
that women should not seek education un-
less they would make practical use of it, as
teachers or missionaries etc, reveals q
very low conception of the purpose and
has been Of inestmable advantage to
women in spreading the gospel of usefulness;
but the mum Der of young women who seek the
higher education for its own sake is large
and is steadily increasing. Statistics show that
in 1856 there 500 higher institutions open
TO women with q total of 81. 976 women stu
dents. Making all needful allowances this is an
immense advance over the record OF fifty
years ago.
1T is now admitted that the hieherfeducation
IS essential to the success of women who
enter the zelda of competitive intellectual
service. Women, standing for the ideal, should
not fear. also, to proclaim that the higher
education adds it's own intrinsic value 70 that OF
the soul"