Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/837

 THE INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SrFFR<;K ALLIANCE 8jT who were the torch-bearers of our movement, gathering today in some far-off celestial sphere and singing together a glad p;eau of exultation." Mrs. Catt referred to the granting of full suf- frage and eligibility to women by Norway in 1907 and continued : Within the past two years appeals for woman suffrage have been presented to the Parliaments of eighteen European governments; the United States Congress and the Legislatures of twenty-nine States: the Parliaments of Canada and Victoria and the Legisla- ture of the Philippines fifty-one independent legislative bodies. The appeals were made for the first time, I believe, in twelve of the European countries. In Spain and the Philippines bills were introduced by friends of the cause quite unknown to national or international officers. This activity has not been barren of results and the delegates of six countries come to this congress vested with larger political rights than they possessed at the time of the Copen- hagen meeting, namely. Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Eng- land and Germany. Each of the five Scandinavian lands has won something. Norwegian women come with full suffrage rights; Finnish delegates come as representatives of the only nation which has elected women to seats in its Parliament; Sweden and Iceland have gained a step in eligibility and our Icelandic delegate of two ago is now a member of the city council of Reykjavik, the capital. The women of Denmark, next to those of Norway, have made the largest gain, as Municipal suffrage with liberal qualifica- tions has been bestowed upon them. English women have secured eligibility to become Mayors and members of town and county councils. Germany has revised its law and women are now free in political associations and to organize woman suffrage socie- The German association affiliated with the Alliance is now a ation of State bodies. In Sweden within two years the mem- ip in the organization has doubled and the ft 3 local organiza- tions reported at Copenhagen have become 127. A petition of i jJ.uS name* ha- been presented to Parliament; deputations have waited upon the f n> -eminent and been granted heari A thorough analysis was made of the present status of woman suffrage throughout the world and in summing up the speaker said: "Although from Occident to Orient, from Lapland to sunny Italy and fp.m < 'anada to South Africa tl tioij fr woman suffrage has known no pause, yet, after all, the storm r of the movement ha* been located in England. In other lands ill-- been steps in evolution; in England there has volution. There have been no gUM nor powder nor bloodshed but there have been all other evidence of