The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-08-11
The Worlds Congress Of Women.

occurred to many casual readers of the
news which by cable recently told that
congress of the women of the world
was sitting in London, that 1t had
elected as its new president a charm
ing American woman, Mrs, May
Wright Sewall, and that prior to its
adjournment it's $500 members were
accorded the exceptional honor Of
personal reception at Windsor castle
by the good queen Of England.
In the North American Review for
August the Countess of Aberdeen,
prominent in the cause of advancing
womanhood. undertakes to answer
the questions asked at the beginning.
She informs us that the chief aim of
the International council which con-
Yened this congress is to promote
greater unity of thought, sympathy
and purpose amongst women workers
of different nations; that the congress
was constituted from delegates duly
chosen by local or federated organiza-
tions of progressive women in each
of the more prominent and intelligent
the congress were planned, not in the
interest of any particular doctrine,
idea or fad but with a view to evok-
ing the fullest interchange of opinion
upon all subjects bearing upon "o-
mans progress in the hope that from
multitude of counselors truth will
issue-a hone which she seems to
think the congress abundantly fulfilled.
AS an example of the specific good
which the congress accomplished she
cites the moVement-since practicalized
by men. by the Way,-to provide in
the city of London respectable and
sanitary cheap lodgings for women
wage earners who, until lately, were
handicapped greatly by the scarcity of
such accommodations within the range
of their limited means.
On this humanitarian or philanthro-
pic side it is easy to believe that the
congress, so far as it went or inspired
actions in others. was a success; for
here, indeed, is womans natural
sphere, in which she progresses along
the lines of least resistance. But
what of the congress as an intellectual
demonstration? Another writer in the
Review, Kassandra Vivaria, does not
on this point share the Countess Of
Aberdeens enthusiasm She speaks
somewhat wearily of the automatic
succession of lifeless speeches which
impressed her as in the main "youag
and amateurish and beside the ma ''i,"
and in their general drift tended to
merge the individual work oe clever
women into a kind of collective fanati-
csm, to bring to the front too many
of the women only capable of medioc-
rity and to isolate the work of woman
from the work of man." The STANDARD
of the speeches, allowing for brilliant
exceptions, was, she assures us, not
hiGh; the tendency was to Clover the
increased scope of womans work,
whicL is an ideal, into a snS question,
which is a fad;" and much that was
said sounded illogical towards nature
and was intensely feminine in the calm
ignoring of facts that have governed
the world and that unless not social
prejudices but physical laws can be re-
versed, must go on governing it,"
Want of foresight, narrowness of men
tai horizon, and an absurd lack of the
sense of due proportion characterized
the intellectual activities OF the con-
gress, if we are to believe this critic,
and the little of lasting good which
was achieved contrasts Disappointing
ly with the large impetus given to the
emotional and hysterical presentation
of the cause of woman as in some oc-
cult way necessarily a cause in an
tagonism to the natural interests of
the other sex.
1t would not be prudent for us to
say which of these views is the more
acceptable; that we leave to each read
er's own judgment. But it is worthy
of note that no particular necessity
exists these days for mems congress
called especially to consider problems
limited to the masculine sex.