s of the country. The sessions are presided over by a woman,
discussions are carried on with due attention to parliamentary usage,
a large amount of business is transacted with system and accuracy, and
in every respect these meetings compare favorably with those conducted
by men after centuries of experience. They are treated with the
greatest respect by the newspapers which vie with each other in
publishing pictures of the delegates, their addresses and extended and
complimentary reports of the proceedings. The character of these
national organizations, the scope of their objects and the extent of
their achievements can in no way be so strikingly illustrated as by
giving a list of the most important.[498]

THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN was organized March 31, 1888, in
Washington, D. C., "to unite the women of all the countries in the
world for the promotion of co-operative internationalism through the
abatement of that prejudice which springs from ignorance and which
can be corrected only by that knowledge which results from personal
acquaintance.

"In the first place its influence has united different organizations
of the same country hitherto indifferent or inimical to each other;
and in the second it has commenced the work of uniting the women of
different nations and abating race prejudice. It has promoted the
movement of peace and arbitration, and through its international
committees it is forming a central bureau of information in regard to
women's contribution to the work of the world."

It is composed at present of fourteen National Councils of as many
different countries representing an individual membership of about
6,000,000 women. Its president is Mrs. May Wright Sewall, who was one
of its founders.

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN was organized in Washington, D. C.,
March 31, 1888. Its constitution is introduced by the following
preamble:

"We, women of the United States, sincerely believing that the best
good of our homes and nation will be advanced by our own greater unity
of thought, sympathy and purpose, and that an organized movement of
women will best conserve the highest good of the family and the State,
do hereby band ourselves together in a confederation of workers
committed to the overthrow of all forms of ignorance and injustice,
and to the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law.
This Council is organized in the interest of no one propaganda, and
has no power over