Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
The convention has opened magnificently, with glorious sunshine,
great audiences, full and friendly press reports and the
suffragists of the Pacific Coast outdoing themselves in cordial
hospitality. The beautiful city of Portland is so full of flowers
at this season that the whole city might be thought to have
decorated in honor of the coming of the national convention. As
the yellow-ribboned delegates go through the streets they
constantly utter exclamations of delight over the enormous roses,
the curtains of dark blue clematis draping the verandas, the
luxuriant masses of ivy and the majestic trees rising above the
velvet lawns and casting their shade upon the many handsome
residences.... Hospitable Oregonians send in presents to the
officers of huge red and yellow apples and baskets of mammoth
cherries nestling in their green leaves....
The large gray stone church has its auditorium hung with American
flags and bunting of the suffrage color; portraits of Lucy Stone
and Susan B. Anthony stand back of the pulpit and along its front
runs the word "progress" in large letters made of flowers.... A
splendid bouquet of white lilies has just been sent to the
convention as a greeting from the Oregon State Federation of
Women's Clubs and another of rich red roses from the Portland
Woman's Club, and the platform is imbedded in carnations from
local florists. All sorts of organizations seem to vie with each
other in welcoming their happy guests.
The convention was opened with prayer by the Rev. Elwin L. House,
pastor of the church. The president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was in the
chair and greetings were given from the Oregon Suffrage Association by
its president, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe; the National Council of Women by
the president, Mrs. Mary Wood Swift (Calif.), who called attention to
the fact that it was organized by suffragists; the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union by Mrs. Lucia Faxon Additon; the National
Grange by Mrs. Clara H. Waldo, who said: "The basic principle of the
Grange is equal rights for men and women and it practices what it
preaches, all the offices being open to women." Greetings from the
National Federation of Labor were offered by Mrs. F. Ross; the Ladies
of the Maccabees by Mrs. Nellie H. Lambson; the Federation of Women's
Clubs by Mrs. Sarah A. Evans; the Forestry Association by Mrs. Arthur
H. Breyman; the Women's Henry George League by Dr. Mary H. Thompson,
the pioneer woman physician of Oregon. The National Conference of
Charities and Corrections, then in session in Portland, sent greetings
by Mrs. Lillie R. Trumbull, who said: "If woman suffrage means
anything it means the protection of children, therefore we march under
the same banner."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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