Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
The national corresponding secretary, Miss Kate Gordon, read a
telegram from Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen, leader of the suffrage
movement in Canada: "Greetings and best wishes from your sisters
across the line"; a cablegram from Christiana: "Success to your work,
from the National Woman Suffrage Association of Norway." A letter was
read by the delegate from Norway, Mrs. Gudrun Drewsen, from the
president of the association, Miss Gina Krog, which said in part: "The
woman suffrage movement! I know of no movement, no cause that is at
the same time so national and so international. The victory now gained
in Norway, municipal suffrage and eligibility to municipal office for
a great many women, will no doubt in time influence every home in our
country; but we could not have won this victory without receiving
impulses from other civilized nations. We are indeed indebted to men
and women in several European countries for the privileges which we
now possess, but from no other country in the world have we received
the inspiration in our work which we have had from the United States;
to no women in the world are we so indebted as to the women of this
country. Those great and noble pioneers and their fervent
struggle--how they have inspired us and awakened our enthusiasm! That
assiduous work, year after year--how it has strengthened our hands!
That glorious example, those results attained in your country--how we
have brought them before our legislators to awaken their sense of
justice! I sincerely wish that the news of the victory achieved in our
country may prove an impetus to you in your work. To be assured of
this would give us the great satisfaction of feeling that at all
events a small fraction of our great debt to you was paid."
Miss Gordon read a letter from the Federation of Progressive Women's
Societies in Germany which declared that its first and foremost object
was to secure for German women full political rights and continued:
"We watch with especial interest and sympathy the effort of those who
persistently and courageously work for the full citizenship of women.
The women of the United States have, in this struggle, set a noble
example to the women of Europe. In Germany we recall with tender
veneration such names as Lucy Stone, Frances Willard, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. The women of
Germany are without political rights. It is far easier to fight for
equality and freedom in a young country, like the United States, than
in an old civilization, cumbered with traditions--a country that looks
back on a history of many centuries, that only a few decades ago
fought its way through severe conflicts and painful changes to
political unity and is now slowly growing into responsibilities which
social and political problems impose on a modern State."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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