Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/728

* WOMAN'S C. T. UNION. 620 WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE tive of the National Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union at Washin^on, D. C, Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis, aided by local and State societies, helped greatly in securing the passage of the Anti-canteen "Law. Mrs. Ellis was influential also in securing the law prohibiting the sale of liquor and firearms to the native races in the Pacific islands. Quarterly temperance lessons for the Sunday schools, in the international series, have been secured by the Sunday-school department. The headquarters of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union are at Rest Cottage, the former home of Miss W'illard, at Evanston. 111. WOMAN'S COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE. An institution for the higher education of women, in Baltimore, Jld., founded in 18S5 and opened in 1888, under the auspices of the Jlethodist Episcopal Church. Its courses lead to the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts, for which work equiva- lent to fifteen hours a week for four sessions is required. The group system is followed and over half the work is elective. Physical train- ing is required. Two fellowships are conferred annually for the encouragement of university study abroad; two tables are maintained at the United States Biological Laboratory at W'oods Hole, Mass., and a table is in part supported at the Naples station. Instruction in art and music is provided, but only for students taking aca- demic work, and these courses are not counted to- ward the degree. Applicants are accepted on certificate from college preparatory schools and from approved high schools. The student at- tendance in 190,3 was 356, the faculty numbered 24, and the library contained 10.000 volumes. The college has nine buildings, valued with the grounds at $618,000. The total value of prop- erty under the control of the college was $1,- 063,000; its endowment was $445,000, and its income $65,000. WOMAN'S RELIEF CORPS. A woman's patriotic society organized in July, 18S3, and known as an "auxiliary to the Grand Army. The society is composed chiefly of the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters of Union soldiers of the Civil War, although all loyal women, no matter whether they are related to a war veteran or not, are eligible to membership. The organiza- tion, like the Grand Army, is divided into de- partments, of which there are 35, and into smaller divisions called corps, of which there are 3106, with a total membership of 144,387. The society has expended ujuvard of $2,000,000 in the carrying nut of its eluTrities among the widows and orphans of Union veterans. It meets sinniltaneously with the (hand Army. A some- what simibir organization, known as the Ladies of the firand Army, is composed of the wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, blood-kin nieces, and all lineal descendants of soldiers and sailors of the Civil War; but army nurses may be ad- mitted to membership. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE. The movement in favor of granting sulVrage to women is one phase of tlu^ demand for equal political, indus- trial, and educational opportunities for women, which was broiight into prominence by the eco- nomic changes of the nineleentb centirv. A few early writers discussed tlie position of women. Plato in the Rijiiiblic |)roposed that they should have the same education as men and do the same work, being 'lesser men.' The Chris- tian religion raised woman's position by recog- nizing individual rights, but it stigmatized her as the sufl'erer for Eve's sins. Paul's discourses condemned her to silence. Monkish literature symbolized her as man's temptress. Yet even in the Jliddle Ages equal rights for women were now and then advocated, as by Cornelius Agrippa (1509); Ruscelli (1552); Anthony Gibson (1599) ; and later Paul Pvibera and Count Segur. In 1696 De Foe suggested an institution for the better education of women. Women themselves have prophesied and written in all ages. In the fourteenth century, Christine of Pisa and Mar- garet of Angouleme attained distinction. The eighteenth century was especially favorable to women writers, and France developed many tal- ented women. Political theorists, however, did not advocate power for women. Montesquieu would give them freedom in a monarchy, since luxury is desirable, but he thought their freedom dangerous to a republic. Rous- seau, inconsistently with his principle of universal suffrage, does not give the ballot to women, Comte teaches the natural sub- ordination of women, and their inferiority in everything except a spontaneous expansion of sympathy and sociality. Schopenhauer describes women as big children, examples of arrested de- velopment. An exception to prevailing views was the philosophy of Condorcet. who urged that women should lie granted the same rights as men. The French Revolution developed the idea of in- dividual rights, but all petitions from women were ignored. It was in 1790, however, that Mary Wollstonecraft published the Vindication of the Riflhts of Women. As early as 1647 ilargaret Brent, the executor and representative of Lord Baltimore, demanded a scat in the Assembly of Maryland. Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, and Mary Otto Warren asked that women should be recognized in the Constitution, and Hannah Lee Corbin protested against taxation without representation. Under the first Constitution oi New Jer.sey. by an in- advertence, women could vote from 1776 to 1807. Various causes led to the discussion of woman's position: (1) interest in the property rights of married women; (2) the lectures of Frances Wright (1820) : (3) interest in temperance ; and (4) the anti-slavery struggle. At an early date an effort was made to modify proiierty laws. Lijcy Stone and Henry Blackwell influenced legislation in Massachusetts from 1845 on. A bill was intro- duced in New York in 1S30. but was not passed until 1848. Anti-slavery associations were dis- turbed by the "the woman question.' Attempts were made to silence the Grinfl<e sisters and Abby Kelley. and the American women delegates were refused admission to the W'orld's Conven- tion in 1840, William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips were always strong supporters of the cause. The year 1848 was an important date in the woman's sull'rage agitation, as in all efforts for political riglits. The first woman's siifTrage con- vention was called in Seneca Falls, .luly 19. 1848. Mrs. Klizabetli Cadv Stanton, Lueretia Mott, Martini C. Wriglit. and .Mary A. MeCIintock were prime movers. A declaration of sentiments and a statement of civil and political disabilities were made. The second convention met at