is resolution out of
the committee, and to ask the Senate of the United States to give
the women of this country, so far as in its power, the right of
suffrage.

Dr. Shaw: "I present a lawyer, Mrs. Ellen Spencer Mussey, but she will
speak in the capacity of a college woman." After giving her experience
in trying to secure better laws for women in the District of Columbia,
Mrs. Mussey told of her visits to Norway and Sweden, where as attorney
for a legation she had every opportunity to attend the Parliaments,
meet the statesmen and leading women and hear their universal
testimony in favor of the experiment in woman suffrage. In closing she
stated that as chairman of the legislative committee of the General
Federation of Women's Clubs she had received reports from hundreds of
them regretting their lack of power to obtain legislation and their
need of representation on boards of education and of public
institutions. Dr. Shaw then introduced Miss Minnie J. Reynolds of New
Jersey, formerly of Colorado, who had supervised the petition of the
writers.

Miss Reynolds. This attempt to canvass the writers of the United
States is absurdly inadequate and fragmentary. It was the unpaid
work of women, each of whom had her own occupation in life, in
such spare time as they could get during the year. These writers
represent only twenty-one States. Others, including such great
States as New York, Michigan and Wisconsin, sent in huge rolls of
names without a classification. I am speaking for 1,870 writers.
The first name is that of William Dean Howells, the "dean of
American letters," perhaps more truly representative of American
literature than any other living person. The second name is that
of John Bigelow, ex-ambassador to France, ex-secretary-of-state
of New York, and author of some twenty scholarly books. On this
list are the names of men and women known to every reader of
American literature and to every reader of the periodical press.
The petition blanks were sent to them by mail and if they did not
wish to sign they had only to drop them in the waste-basket. A
number of publicists have signed, among them Melville E. Stone,
head of the Associated Press, and six of his editors; S. S. and
T. C. McClure, publishers of the McClure's Magazine; the editors
of Everybody's, the Independent, the Public, Philistine,
De