The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-21
THEY WILL DISCUSS
Home AND POLITICS.
OAKLAND LADIES MEET TO TALK
OF THE COMING WOMEN'S
CONGRESS.
FAMOUSSPEAKERSE EXPECTED.
MAN, HOWEVER, WILL ONLY BE
ALLOWED ONE SMALL SPEAK
ING PART.

An enthusiastic preliminary meeting of
the Woman's Congress Association was
held yesterday in the hall of the First
Presbyterian Church, Oakland. A number
of representative women were present,
from Oakland as well as from Berkeley,
Alameda and San Francisco. Mrs. Sarah B.
Cooper presided, and the following mem
bers of the executive board and of district
boards occupied the platform: Miss NJ. L..
Lambert, Mrs Baldwin, Rev. Eliza Upper
Mrs George T. Gaden, Mrs. Helen Camp
bell, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson, Mrs.
w. E. Hale and Mrs. Garrison Gerst.
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper said:
1t gives me great hopes for the success of the
congress TO be held next May when look at
the large audience, for it has passed into a
proverb that whatever Oakland ladies take
hold of goes.
Last year the keynote OF the congress was
woman; this year it will be home. You see we
have made a step forward and included man
We shall only allow men to take small part,
however-just one speech day-to show them
what minor role they have allowed us in the
past.
The speaker added that no Congress
could be really perfect unless men and
women co-operated in it.
The audience applauded when informed
L.
Shaw had promised to be present during
the entire proceedings, as well as Mrs
May Wright Sewell and Mrs. Battell Diet
rick.
The president, in pointing out what had
been achieved by these four women, re-
marked that even those who did not advo-
cate suffrage, must admire Miss Anthony's
work along other lines.
Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson made a
speech which left her hearers in no doubt
as to the objects and desires of the con-
gresS:
People have to come together in order to
progress, and of the two halves of mankind
the better half has hitherto been prevented
from meeting. You know the old proverb,
"a woman must leave her home three times
TO be christened, married and buried" This,
though, is the woman's century, as Victor
Hugo called it, but in order to grow they must
meet.
This year we have taken the word Home"
as the subject OF the congress. Some people
have thought it was a limited one, but that
shows how little they know about it, for home
Is the beginning of life, and in many respects
the end of IL.
The speaker then told her hearers that
they had much to learn about the homer
We don't know good plumbing from bad,
and yet it affects our health and tempers and
those OF our children. We think that politics
are not our affair, and yet politics are response
BILE if we have bad water and bad drainage. 1t
is not enough TO keep your own yard clean.
1t is intended to have these subjects treated
by the best authorities at the congress, and, re-
member, it will be free to ALL as II the women
OF California in fact gave magnificent enter
tainment to the public.
Mrs. DR.. Van Kirk said that the Oakland
women were taking an active interest in
sanitation. and Mrs. Helen Campbell
made an address, expressing the belief
that the congress would bring about the
union of all that was best on the Pacific
Coast.
Mrs. NJ. c. Teats gave an account of the
Legislature, which proved conclusively
how sorely home influence is needed there,
and Miss Ada Van Pelt, Miss Whitaker,
Miss Mollie Corners and Rev Eliza Tup-
per Wilkes made speeches which were ap-
plauded.