Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 3.djvu/1005

910 university lectures. Marie Gœgg, the untiring leader of the movement in that country, writes me:

However, notwithstanding these examples of liberality, which denote that the law-makers had a breadth of view in accord with their time, Switzerland, as a whole, has been one of the least disposed of European States to accept the idea of the civil emancipation of woman, much less her political emancipation, so that from 1848 to 1868 the demands of American women were considered here to be the height of extravagance.

.... The seed planted in America in 1848, though its growth was difficult, finally began to take root in Europe. The hour had come.

In March, 1868, Marie Gœgg published a letter, in which she invited the women of all nations to join with her in the formation of a society. In July of that same year the Woman’s International Association was founded at Geneva with Marie Gœgg as president. The organization began immediately an active work, and through its efforts, several of the reforms already mentioned were brought about, and public opinion in Switzerland considerably enlightened on the question. Mrs. Gœgg says:

With the object of advancing the young movement, I established at my own risk a bi-monthly, the Woman's Journal (Journal des femmes). But this was a violation of that good Latin motto, festina lenté, and, at the end of a few months the paper suspended publication. Swiss public opinion was not yet ready to support such a venture.

It may be pointed out here that, except in England, all the women’s societies created in Europe had, up to the time of the organization of the International Association refrained from touching the question of the political rights of women. The Swiss association, on the contrary, always included this subject in its programme. But, unfortunately, at the moment when our efforts were meeting with success, and the future was full of promise for the cause which we advocated, the terrible Franco-German war broke out, and, for various reasons unnecessary to go into here, I felt constrained to resign the presidency, and the association came to an end.

Two years later the International Association was revived in the form of the Solidarity (Solidarité), whose name signified the spirit which ought to unite all women. In 1875 Mrs. Gœgg became president of the new organization as well as founder and editor of its organ, the Solidarity Bulletin (Bulletin de la Solidarité). But on September 20, 1880, both society and journal ceased to exist. The president in her farewell address said:

The dissolution of the Solidarity ought not to discourage us, but ought rather to cause us to rejoice, for the recent creation of so many women’s national societies in different countries proves that the Solidarity has accomplished its aim, so that we have only to retire.