Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/788

 77 2 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE suffrage, which did not reach second reading. Its president, Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, had attended the World's Con- gress of Women during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and become intimately acquainted with Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. May Wright Sewall and other noted suffragists in the United States. In 1899 the sword of Russia descended, the constitution of Finland was wrecked and her autonomy, reli- gion, customs, language, everything sacred was threatened. The real movement for the full enfranchisement of women began in 1904, when bills were introduced in the Diet. In the autumn the president of the Woman's Alliance Union, Miss Annie Furuhjelm, returned from the inspiration of the great International Council of Women in Berlin and the forming of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. With the political oppression now existing the women were feeling a strong desire to share in the responsibility for the fate of the country. Under the auspices of the Union the first public meeting for woman suffrage was held in Helsingfors on November 7, attended by more than a thousand women of all classes and all parties. Resolutions were passed that the complete suffrage should be extended to every citizen and a petition demanding it should be sent to the Diet. For the first time the Union included eligi- bility to office in its demands. Forty-seven addresses of sym- pathy signed by hundreds of women were received from dif- ferent parts of the country. From this time the Union devoted all its energies to the movement for the franchise. In another year the Russo-Japanese War was over and Russia was in the midst of a revolution. In October, 1905, the long pent-up forces of Finland broke the barriers and a "national strike" was inaugurated. Women were members of the central committee elected at a mass meeting to manage it. Those in the highest ranks of society had for the past year been members of a secret organization extending over the country raising funds, smuggling literature and daily risking their lives. For five days not a wheel turned and no work was done except under the most urgent necessity. There was perfect order and at intervals deputations of men and women went to the Russian Governor General in Helsingfors asking for the restoration of Finnish