In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

^ 423 a steady drizzle of difficulties working with English suffragists in an international context. See Sandra Stanley Holton, Suffrage Days: Stories from the Women’s Suffrage Movement (London, 1996), 64–65, 74, and Papers, 4:299–300n, 338–39, 349–50, 5:24–29, 86–93. ••••••••• 200 • Remarks of SBA to the Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage [18 February 1902] Miss Anthony. Mr. Chairman 1 and gentlemen of the committee, 2 this is the seventeenth Congress that has been addressed by the women of this nation. That means that we have been coming to Congress thirty-three years. In 1887 the Senate brought the bill to a discussion and to a vote. 3 We ask for a sixteenth amendment because your honorable body, the Congress of the United States, has power to submit the proposition to the legislatures of the several States, and it is much easier to canvass a legislature —it is much easier to persuade the members of a legislature to pass on the ratification of this amendment—than it is to get the whole three millions or six millions, as the case may be, of the rank and file of the men of the different States to vote for it. I appeal to you that you bring this question before the Senate of the United States. I think we are of as much importance as are the Filipinos, Porto Ricans, Hawaiians, Cubans, and all of the different sorts of men that you have before you. (Laughter.) When you get those men, you have an ignorant and unlettered set of people,who know nothing about our institutions . The 600 women teachers sent over to the Philippines are a thousand times better qualified than are the men who go there to make money. 4 The women go there to teach, to educate, and to get something to build a State upon. The women of the islands, as well as the women at home, are quite as well qualified to govern and have the charge of affairs in their hands as are the men. But I do not propose to talk this morning.I am simply here to introduce those who are to address you. I have here the report of the hearing two years ago, which contains a 12 february 1902 424 & statement of the workings of suffrage in the different States of the Union. 5 This report is published at the expense of Uncle Sam. The only thing we ever get out of him is the printing of that document.(Laughter.) This bears the frank of Hon.Cushman K.Davis, 6 and during his lifetime these reports were sent over the country in that way.Before that the reports of these hearings were sent out under the frank of Senator Daniel, 7 former chairman of the committee, and we shall expect Senator Bacon and Senator Berry and all of you gentlemen to do your part. Senator Mitchell here is an old war horse. I traveled with him thirty-one years ago over the Union Pacific, and we were snowed in together for nine days. (Laughter.) Senator Mitchell. We got pretty well acquainted then, did we not? Miss Anthony. Yes; and you have been a good suffrage man ever since. Senator Mitchell. You made one convert. Miss Anthony. Yes; and there were several others. A man came to me at the hotel the other night, who was with us on that trip, who remembered the trials we had. I now have the pleasure of introducing Harriet May Mills, the organizer of New York State. Y Woman Suffrage. Hearing before the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage, United States Senate, on the Joint Resolution (S.R. 53) Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Extending the Right of Suffrage to Women (Washington, D.C., 1902), 3–4. 1. Augustus Octavius Bacon (1839–1914), Democrat of Georgia, chaired the Senate Select Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Fifty-seventh Congress. The hearing was convened to consider Senate Resolution No. 53, introduced by John H. Mitchell on 10 February 1902. (BDAC; Congressional Record, 57th Cong., 1st sess., 312, 1497.) 2. All members were present. James Henderson Berry (1841–1913) of Arkansas was the second Democrat. The Republicans were Thomas Robert Bard (1841– 1915) of California, John Hipple Mitchell (1835–1905) of Oregon, and George Peabody Wetmore (1846–1921) of Rhode Island. (BDAC.) On SBA’s snowbound adventure with Senator Mitchell in 1872, see Papers, 2:465–66. For other...

Share