from having
always been a minor she has suddenly become of age. It may be of
interest to you of the United States, who can show so many tax paying
women without any right to vote, to know that we were not able to get
our Parliament interested in tax paying woman suffrage until the bill
included wives also. The immediate result of this law has been the
election of several women to important municipal positions; for
instance, members of the common council in the capital; members of the
board of aldermen; at one place chief assessor. Women may serve on
juries and grand juries and have been appointed members of special
congressional commissions. Several women doctors have been appointed
in public institutions, on boards of health as experts for the
Government, etc. Matrons have been employed at prisons where women
are and special prisons for women in charge of a matron have been
established. On the whole we begin to see the glory of the rising sun
which will give us in a little while the bright, clear day."

Miss Vida Goldstein, a delegate from Australia, began her address: "I
am very proud that I have come here from a country where the woman
suffrage movement has made such rapid strides. The note was first
struck in America and yet women today are struggling here for what we
have had in Australia for years, and we have proved all the statements
and arguments against woman suffrage to be utterly without foundation.
It seems incredible to us that the women here have not even the School
and Municipal suffrage except in a very few States. We have had this
for over forty years and we have never heard a word against it. It is
simply taken as a matter of course that the women should vote. They
say that as soon as women get this privilege they are going to lose
the chivalrous attentions of men. Let me assure you that a woman has
not the slightest conception of what chivalry means until she gets a
vote...." Miss Goldstein told of woman suffrage in New Zealand and
produced the highest testimony as to its good results in both
countries.

In closing the hearing Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice president,
said in part:

Our association desires you not only to report the resolution for
this amendment favorably but to recommend the appointment of a
committee to investigate this subject. Years ago when our women
came before you we had nothing but theory to give you, what we
believed would be the good result