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400 & ••••••••• 184 • Speech by SBA to the Rochester Council of Women Editorial note: Assembling at the Berith Kodesh Temple, the Rochester Council of Women marked women’s international peace day on the anniversary of the First Hague Conference in 1899 for an audience of six hundred people. Joining SBA as speakers at the event were Max Landsberg, rabbi of the temple; William Gannett, Unitarian minister; Rush Rhees, president of the University of Rochester; Charles A. Gilbert , superintendent of schools; and Helen Montgomery, local activist. [18 May 1901] Miss Susan B.Anthony,the famous exponent of woman’s rights,was the next speaker. She said: “What does this conference mean? In the city of Rochester there are forty different societies federated together; in the nation there are twenty national organizations combined,and there are eleven international societies banded in the same union. It means that there are a great many women, in a great many states, and a great many countries, all working for the same object this afternoon. It means that in a great many different countries women are gathered together this afternoon to think about peace and arbitration . Women have not much else to do about war but to think and think and think. “We have long since agreed as to the personal folly of settling personal quarrels by violence. The means of settling the quarrels of nations to-day are barbarous.But what can you expect of a nation that refuses to give a trial by a jury of her peers to one-half of its population? What can you expect of a nation that does that, and sees no harm in it? “There is work for us at home. This should be a nation set upon a hill for its righteousness, and our first duty should be to settle these questions for ourselves, that this nation may be a perfect republic, a sure republic. It is a remarkable work that lies before the women of to-day. Some means, some statement should be prepared, signing which, the nations of the world would agree never again to send out their young men in battle.” Y Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 19 May 1901. 18 may 1901 ...

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