Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-02-13

presided, and for the benefit i,f those who
had not been able to attend the White
House reception, she told of what took
place during the meeting with the Presi-
dent She told also Of her interview with
Mrs. Mckinley.
Miss Anthony opened the evenings exer-
cises by presenting the ladies of the con-
vention a great bouquet of lilies, which
had been presented to her by Mrs. McKin-
ley, after the reception to the suffragists
al the White House, and the wish was ex-
pressed that Miss Anthony would say to
her girls that nl-health prevented the
personal greeting that Mrs. Mckinley would
like to extend but that she felt great in
terest In the cause of woman The an
nouncement was received with a rising vote
of thanks, and much applause. Miss An
thony then placed the flowers in the tall
cut glass jar, where they could be seen
by ALL
First Speaker of the Evening.
The first speaker of the evening was
Mrs. Anne L. Diggs, state librarian of
Kansas, who spoke on municipal suffrage.
1.-The science and art of living together"
said Mrs. Diggs, "at largest convenience
and highest purpose are the problems
with which municipalities are confronted.
A sense of mental and moral responsible
ity is a potent developer of individuality
and Character Nothing in civic life so
carried the responsibility as the possession
of that highest prerogauVe OF american
citizenship, the ballot.
Zone Of the most specious objections
urged against woman's assumption of
civic relations is the charge that women
are narrow. are petty; that they think in
grooves: that for the most part they do
not reason-they simply feel, and, hence,
they do not render broad. impartial judg-
ments. and so do not take comprehensive
views of matters presented to them Ii
these things are true in any larger degree
If than of IL Is because WO-
mans point of view has been circum-
scribed and her sense of relation and re-
sponsibiity have been undeveloped.
I'm the dozen or more years in which wo-
men have had the municipal ballot in Kan
sas 1t is unquestianably true that her point
of view has broadened, that her less petty
and circumscribed range of thought has
made her more judicious, has brought
about better understanding between her
self and the man citizen; has enhanced her
usefulness a citizen and enriched her
character an individual in all the rela-
lions of life.
ITO the unthoughtful enthusiast who be-
lieved that the ballot in the hands of wo-
man would, presto, bring the millennium into
existence the results of woman'S munich
pal enfranchisement have been disappoint-
ing To such as see but one or two great
questions as related to morals. woman's
suffrage has fallen below their dreams as
to regenerated, Sanctified society. But to
such as know that there is no short cut to
individual or social excellence, and that
there is only substantial and permanent
progress by way of gradual growth, the
results are gratifying. Women, prompted
by their power to move on the situation
by means of the ballot, have become stu
dents of city sanitation, Of municipal eco
nomics and of the various subjects bear
ing upon municipal improvements and in
so doing they have added to the sum total
Of that improved order of society which
will be rich in blessing at the ushering in
of the twentieth century"
In the Southland.
Virginia D. Young of South Carolina told
the GLORY of Woman's Suffrage in the
South" Mrs. Young kept her hearers
laughing throughout She has a most de-
lightful accent, and as a story teller she is
almost matchleSS. Mrs. Young's story of
suffrage in the south is one of individual
effort. 1t is story of pioneers who have
paved their way through wilderness of
opposition.
Suffrage work in the SOUTH" said Mrs.
Young, has meant a struggle through the
deep sands of superstition, foundering
through the stagnant waters Of effete Idol
atries, fetching up of fetiches of rich
women on pedestals and poor women at the
washtub. 1t has meant facing the pfllory
of opposition and setting UP in the stocks,
to be jeered at and stared at by cruel
critics.
1.-THE story of woman suffrage in the
south really antedates the birth Of Aunt
Susan Anthony The new woman OF the
her brother men is in direct line Of success
sion to that magnificent colonial dame,
Mistress Margaret Brent of Maryland, who
petisioned for vote in the colonial assem-
bly, after the death of her kinsman, Lord
Baltimore, who had endowed her with
power of attorney. This was in 1647
'tOur legislature has been doing a little
something for women. They have raised
the salary Of the woman state librarian
and they have passed a marriage license
law and exact a marriage fee This comes
in the line OF reform I have very much
at heart"
Travelled 1000 Miles,
Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway Of Oregon
said she had travelled 1900 miles to greet
her coworkers from the north, the south
and middle west. She had come from a
part OF our great country so remote in time
and distance from the greater centers Of