e eight days, and its sixteen public
sessions will afford ample opportunity for reporting the various
phases of woman's work and progress in all parts of the world,
during the past forty years. It is hoped that all friends of the
advancement of women will lend their support to this undertaking.

On behalf of the National Woman Suffrage Association:

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, President.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY, First Vice-Pres.
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE, Second Vice-Pres.
RACHEL G. FOSTER, Corresponding Sec'y.
ELLEN H. SHELDON, Recording Sec'y.
JANE H. SPOFFORD, Treasurer.
MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, Chairman Ex. Com.

"All of the intervening months from June until the next March were
spent in the extensive preparations necessary to the success of a
convention which proposed to assemble delegates and speakers from many
parts of the world. As the funds had to be raised wholly by private
subscription, no bureau with an expensive pay-roll was established but
the entire burden was carried by a few individuals, who contributed
their services."[65]

Fifty-three organizations of women, national in character, of a
religious, patriotic, charitable, reform, literary and political
nature, were represented on the platform by eighty speakers and
forty-nine delegates, from England, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark,
Finland, India, Canada and the United States. Among the subjects
discussed were Education, Philanthropies, Temperance, Industries,
Professions, Organizations, Social Purity, Legal, Political and
Religious Conditions. While no restriction was placed upon the fullest
expression of the most widely divergent views upon these vital
questions of the age, the sessions, both executive and public, were
absolutely without friction.

A complete stenographic report of these fifty-three meetings was
transcribed and furnished to the press by a thoroughly organized corps
of women under the direction of Miss Mary F. Seymour of New York City,
an unexcelled if not an unparalleled feat.[66] The management of the
Council by the different committees was perfect in every detail, and
the eight days' proceedings passed without a break, a jar or an
unpleasant circumstance.

Saturday evening, March 23, Mr. and Mrs. Spofford, of the Rig