The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 2 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
On August 7, Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton spoke at Byron Center, and
were entertained by Mrs. Newton Green. Miss Anthony addressed a large
audience at Jamestown on the 10th and was the guest of Mrs. Reuben E.
Fenton. During part of the summer, for a little recreation, she took
hold of the great heterogeneous mass of bills and receipts of the
National W. S. A. for the past four years and compiled them into a neat,
accurate financial report of seventeen pages, in which every dollar
received and disbursed during that time was acknowledged and accounted
for, without any "sundries" or other makeshifts for the sake of
accuracy. As the total amount reached nearly $18,000, a large part of
which had been received in sums of one or two dollars, the labor
involved may be appreciated. Miss Anthony did this, as she did many
other disagreeable things, not because they were officially her duty,
but because they ought to be done and there was no one else ready to
undertake them. She always was restive under red tape regulations. For
many years she was forced to take the lead in all departments of the
suffrage work and when they finally became systematized, with a head at
each, she sometimes grew impatient at delay and usurped the functions of
others without intending any breach of official etiquette. And so when
this financial statement was completed, she published it without waiting
for money or authority, and wrote to the national treasurer, Mrs.
Spofford, who had recently returned from Europe:
Andrew Jackson-like, I decided to assume the responsibility of
sending to each member of the association a copy of the Council
Report with one of the National's financial statement. I am writing
a personal letter to all, explaining our double keeping of our
pledge and asking them to return contributions, if they are able,
for this permanent and nice report. I do not know what results in
cash will come of it to the National, but I do know that the
poorest and hardest-working women who pinched out their dollars to
send, think that we promised them therefor this book-report of the
council. So all in all I decided, against Miss Foster, Mrs. Stanton
and your own dear self, to give each the report, leaving her to do
as she feels most comfortable about sending to the treasurer
payment in return.
A few days later she writes: "I mailed 800 letters yesterday, and we
have sent over 1,500 Reports, with 800 more promised." Could any pen
give an adequate idea of the amount of work accomplished by that
tireless brain and those never-resting hands?
Miss Anthony spoke on Woman's Day, October 12, at the Centennial
Celebration in Columbus, O. A newspaper correspondent drew this contrast
between her address and those of the women of the W. C. T. U.:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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