 CHAPTER XXV. The last year of Susan's presidency was particularly precious to her. In a sense it represented her farewell to the work she had carried on most of her life, and at the same time it was also the hopeful beginning of the period leading to victory. Yet she had no illusion of speedy or easy success for her girls, and she did her best to prepare them for the obstacles they would inevitably meet. She warned them not to expect their cause to triumph merely because it was just. Governments, she told them, never do any great good things from mere principle, from mere love of justice. You expect too much of human nature when you expect that. The movement had reached an impasse. The temper of Congress, as shown by the admission of Hawaii as a territory without women's suffrage, was both indifferent and hostile. That this attitude did not express the will of the American people, she was firmly convinced. It was due, she believed, to the political influence of powerful groups opposed to women's suffrage, the liquor interests controlling the votes of increasing numbers of immigrants, machine politicians fearful of losing their power, and financial interests whose conservatism resisted any measure which might upset the status quo. How to undermine this opposition was now her main problem, and she saw no other way but persistent agitation through a more active, more effective, ever-growing women's suffrage organization, reaching a wider cross-section of the people. She herself had established a press bureau which was feeding interesting factual articles on women's suffrage to newspapers throughout the country. For as she wrote Mrs. Colby, the suffrage cause needs to picture its demands in the daily papers where the unconverted can see them rather than in special papers where only those already converted can see them. Of greatest importance to her was winning the support of organized labor. Samuel Gompers, the president of the American Federation of Labor, had already shown his friendliness toward equal pay and votes for women, and was putting women organizers in the field to speed the unionization of women. Even so, she was surprised at the enthusiasm with which she was received at the American Federation of Labor Convention in 1899, when the 400 delegates by a rising vote adopted a strong resolution urging favorable action on a Federal Women's Suffrage Amendment. So far as possible, she had always established friendly relations with labor organizations, just in 1869 with William H. Silvus' National Labor Union, and then with the Knights of Labor and their leader, Terence V. Powderly. When Eugene V. Debs, president of the American Railway Union, was arrested during the Pullman Strike in 1894 for defying a court injunction, she did not rate him, as so many did, a dangerous radical, but as an earnest reformer, crusading for an unpopular cause. They had met years before in Terre Haute, where at his request she had lectured on women's suffrage, and immediately they had won each other's sympathy and respect. She did not see indications of anarchy in the Pullman and Homestead strikes, or in the Haymarket riot, but regarded them as an unfortunate phase of an industrial revolution which in time would improve the relations of labor and capital. That woman would be affected by this industrial revolution was obvious to her, and she wanted them to understand it and play their part in it. For this reason she saw the importance of keeping the National American Women's Suffrage Association informed on all developments affecting wage-earning women, and to her delight she found three young suffragists wide awake on this subject. One of them, Florence Kelly, had joined forces with that remarkable young woman, Jane Adams, in her valuable social experiment, Hull House, in the slums of Chicago, and was now devoting herself to improving the working conditions of women and children. She represented a new trend in thought and work, social service, which made a great appeal to college women and set in motion labor legislation designed to protect women and children. Another young woman of promise, Gail Loughlin, pioneering as a lawyer, approached the subject from the feminist viewpoint, seeking protection for women not through labor legislation based on sex, but through trade unions, the vote, equal pay, and a wider recognition of women's right to contract for their labor on the same terms as men. Her survey of women's working conditions presented at a convention of the National American Association was so valuable and attracted so much attention that she was appointed to the United States Labor Commission. Harriet Stanton Blatch also understood the significance of the Industrial Revolution and women's part in it, and she too opposed labor legislation based on sex. Coming from England occasionally to visit her mother in New York, she brought her liberal viewpoint into women's suffrage conventions with a flair of oratory matching that of her gifted parents. The more I see of her, Susan remarked to a friend, the more I feel the greatness of her character. Although it was Susan's intention to hew to the line of women's suffrage and not to comment publicly on controversial issues, she could not keep silent when confronted with injustice. Religious intolerance, bigotry, and racial discrimination always forced her to take a stand regardless of the criticism she might bring on herself. The treatment of the Negro in both the North and the South was always of great concern to her, and during the 1890s when a veritable epidemic of lynchings and race riots broke out, she expressed herself freely in Rochester newspapers. She noted the dangerous trend as indicated by new anti-Negro societies and the limitation of membership to white Americans in the Spanish-American War Veterans Organization. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, she put into practice her own sincere belief in race equality. During every Washington convention, she arranged to have one of her good speakers occupy the pulpit of a Negro church, and in the South she made it a point to speak herself in Negro churches and schools and before their organizations, even though this might prejudice Southerners. In her own home she gladly welcomed the Negro lecturers and educators who came to Rochester, this seeking out of the Negro in friendliness was a religious duty to her and a pleasure. She demanded of everyone employed in her household, respectful treatment of Negro guests. She rejoiced when she saw Negroes in the audience at women's suffrage conventions in Washington, and it gave her great satisfaction to hear Mary Church Terrell, a beautiful intelligent Negro who had been educated at Oberlin and in Europe, making speeches which equaled and even surpassed those of the most eloquent white suffragists. Susan did not fail to keep in touch with the International Feminist Movement, and in the summer of 1899, when she was 79 years old, she headed the United States delegation to the International Council of Women, meeting in London. Visiting Harriet Stanton Blatch at her home in Bassingstoke, she first conferred with the leading British feminists, bringing herself up to date on the progress of their cause. In England, as in the United States, the burden of the suffrage campaign had shifted from the shoulders of the pioneers to their daughters, and they were carrying on with vigor, pressing for the passage of a franchise bill in the House of Commons. Moving on to London, she was acclaimed as she had been at the World's Fair in Chicago. The papers here have been going wild over Miss Anthony, declaring her to be the most unaggressive woman's suffragist ever seen, reported a journalist to his newspaper in the United States. From China, India, New Zealand, and Australia, from South Africa, Palestine, Persia, and the Argentine, as well as from Europe and the United States, women had come to London to discuss their progress and their problems, and Susan, pointing out to them the goal toward which they must head, declared with confidence, the day will come when man will recognize women as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in the councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be perfect comradeship between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race. She had hoped that Queen Victoria would receive the delegates at Windsor Castle, thus indicating her approval of the International Council. She longed to talk with this woman, who had ruled so long and so well, that a queen sat on the throne of England. This in itself was important to her, and she wanted to express her gratitude, although she was well aware that the queen had never used her influence for the improvement of laws relating to women. She had hoped to convince her of the need of votes for women, but Queen Victoria never gave her the opportunity. All that influential Englishwoman were able to arrange was the admission of the delegates to the courtyard of Windsor Castle to watch the queen start on her drive and to tea in the banquet room without the queen. Returning home late in August 1899, Susan began at once to make definite plans to turn over the presidency of the National American Women's Suffrage Association to a younger woman, although she well knew that the choice of her successor was actually in the hands of the membership, it was her intention to do what she could, within the bounds of democratic procedure, to ensure the best possible leadership. To fill the office, she turned instinctively to Anna Howard Shaw, whom she loved more dearly as the years went by, and whose selfless devotion to the cause she trusted implicitly. Yet Anna, in spite of her many qualifications, lacked a few which were exceptional and carry Chapman Cat, creative executive ability, a diplomacy, a talent for working with people, directing them, and winning their devotion. With growing admiration Susan had been watching Mrs. Cat's indefatigable work in the States, where she had been building up active branches. Her flair for raising money was outstanding, and Susan realized, as few others did, the crying need of funds for the campaigns ahead. In addition Mrs. Cat had no personal financial worries, for her husband, successful in business, was sympathetic to her work. Anna, on the other hand, would have to support herself by lecturing and carry as well the burden of the presidency of a rapidly growing organization. Anna made the decision for Susan. She urged the candidacy of Mrs. Cat, although her highest ambition had always been to succeed her beloved Aunt Susan. As she later confessed to Susan, this was a personal sacrifice, which cost her many a heartache, but she honestly felt that Mrs. Cat was better fitted, as well as freer to go into an unpaid field. Susan therefore approached Mrs. Cat through Rachel and Harriet Upton, and was relieved when she consented to stand for election. Rumors of Susan's retirement aroused ambitions in Lily Devereux Blake, who from the point of seniority and devoted work in New York was regarded as being next in line for the presidency by Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Colby. Unable to visualize Mrs. Blake as the leader of this large organization with its diverse strong personalities, Susan nevertheless conceded her right to compete for the office. Although she appreciated Mrs. Blake's valuable work for the cause, there never had been understanding or sympathy between them. Temporamentally the blunt stern New Englander, with untiring drive, had little in common with the southern beauty turned reformer. A change in the presidency needed wise and patient handling as personal ambitions, prejudices, and misunderstandings reared their heads. When there were murmurings of secession among a small group if Mrs. Cat were elected, Susan wrote Mrs. Colby that such talk was very immature, very despotic, very undemocratic, and she hoped she was not one of the malcontents. Another problem was the future of the organization committee which under Mrs. Cat's chairmanship had carried on a large part of the work. Its influence was considerable and could readily develop so as to conflict with that of the officers, thus threatening the unity of the whole organization. To dissolve the committee seemed to Susan and her closest advisors the wisest procedure. Mary Garrett Haye, who had worked closely with Mrs. Cat on the organization committee, opposed this plan, but after earnest discussion the officers, including Mrs. Cat, agreed to dissolve the organization committee. As Susan appeared on the platform at the opening session of the Washington Convention in February 1900, there was thunderous applause from an audience tense with emotion at the thought of losing the leader who had guided them for so many years. The tall gray-haired woman in black satin with soft rich lace at her throat and the proverbial red shawl about her shoulders had become the symbol of their cause. Now as she looked down upon them with a friendly smile and motherly tenderness tears came to their eyes, and they wanted to remember always just how she looked at that moment. Then she broke the tension with a call to duty, a summons to press for the Federal Amendment, and one more plea that they always hold their annual conventions in the national capital. Difficult and sad as this official leave taking was, she had made up her mind to carry it through with good cheer. Tirelessly she presided at three sessions daily. With a pride of a mother she listened to the many reports and with particular satisfaction to that of the treasurer which showed all debts paid and pledges amounting to ten thousand dollars to start the new year. Susan herself had made this possible, raising enough to pay past debts and securing pledges so that the new administration could start its work free from financial worries. I have fully determined to retire from the active presidency of the Association. She announced when the reports and speeches were over. I am not retiring now because I feel unable mentally or physically to do the necessary work, but because I wish to see the organization in the hands of those who are to have its management in the future. I want to see you all at work while I am alive, so I can scold you if you do not do it well. Give the matter of selecting your officers serious thought. Consider who will do the best work for the political enfranchisement of women, and let no personal feelings enter into the question. Watching developments with the keen eye of a politician, she was confident that Mrs. Kat would be elected to succeed her, although Mrs. Blake's candidacy was still being assiduously pressed, and circulars recommending her, signed by Mrs. Stanton, Mrs. Russell Sage, and Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, were being widely distributed. Just before the balloting, however, Mrs. Blake withdrew her name in the interest of harmony. This left the field to Mrs. Kat, who received 254 votes of the 278 cast. A burst of applause greeted the announcement of Mrs. Kat's election. Then abruptly it stopped, as the realization swept over the delegates that Aunt Susan was no longer their president. Walking to the front of the platform, Susan took Mrs. Kat by the hand, and while the delegates applauded, the two women stood before them, the one showing in her kind face the experience and wisdom of years, the other young, intelligent, and beautiful, her life still before her. There were tears in Susan's eyes, and her voice was unsteady, as she said. I am sure you have made a wise choice. New conditions bring new duties. These new duties, these changed conditions, demand stronger hands, younger heads, and fresher hearts. In Mrs. Kat, you have my ideal leader. I present to you my successor. Susan's joyous confidence in the new administration was rudely jolted, as controversy over the future of the organization committee flared up during the last days of the convention. Under strong pressure from Mary Garrett Hay, Mrs. Kat had counseled with Henry Blackwell, and at one of the last sessions he had slipped in a motion authorizing the continuance of the organization committee. Stunned by this development, and looking upon it as a threat to the harmony of the new administration, Susan, supported by Harriet Upton and Rachel, prepared to take action. And the next morning, at the first post-convention Executive Committee meeting at which Mrs. Kat presided, Susan proposed that the national officers, headed by Mrs. Kat, take over the duties of the organization committee. This precipitated a heated debate during which Henry Blackwell and his daughter Alice called such procedure unconstitutional, and Mary Hay resigned. As the discussion became too acrimonious, Mrs. Kat put an end to it by calling up unfinished business, and thus managed to steer the remainder of the session into less troubled waters. The next day, however, Susan brought the matter up again, and on her motion the organization committee was voted out of existence with praise for its admirable record of service. Here were all the makings of a factional feud which, if fanned into flame, could have well split the National American Association. Not only had the old organization interfered with the new, and directly reprimanding Mrs. Kat, but Susan, by her own personal influence and determination, had reversed the action of the convention. As a result Mrs. Kat was indignant, hurt, and sorely tempted to resign. But after sending a highly critical letter to every member of the business committee, she took up her work with vigor. Disappointed and heart-sick over the turn of events, Susan searched for a way to re-establish harmony and her own faith in her successor, realizing that a mother's cool counsel and guiding hand were needed to heal the misunderstandings, and convinced that unity and trust could be restored only by frank discussion of the problem by those involved, she asked for a meeting of the business committee at her home. What can we do to get back into trust in each other? She wrote Laura Clay. That is the thing we must do, somehow, and it cannot be done by letter. We must hold a meeting, and we must have you and every single one of our members at it. Impatient at what to her seemed unnecessary delay, she kept prodding Mrs. Kat to call this meeting. Fortunately, both Susan and Mrs. Kat were genuinely fond of each other, and placed the welfare of the cause above personal differences. Both were tolerant and steady and understood the pressures put on the leader of a great organization. Anxious and troubled as she waited for this meeting, Susan appreciated Anna Shaw's visits as never before, marking them as red-letter days on her calendar. Late in August 1900, all the officers finally gathered at Seventeen Madison Street, and Susan listened to their discussions with deep concern. She was confident she could rely completely upon Harriet Upton, Rachel, and Anna, and could count on Laura Clay's level head and good common sense. She never felt sure of Alice Stone Blackwell, and knew there was great sympathy and often a working alliance between her, her father, and Mrs. Kat. Of the latest member of the official family, Catherine Wa McCullough, she had little first-hand knowledge. Mrs. Kat, whom she longed to fathom and trust, was still an enigma. During those hot, humid August days, misunderstandings were healed, Unity was restored, and Susan was reassured that not a single one of her girls desired other than was good for the work. Susan had always been a champion of coeducation, speaking for it as early as the 1850s at state teachers' meetings, and proposing it for Columbia University in her revolution. In 1891, she and Mrs. Stanton had agitated for the admission of women to the University of Rochester. Seven years later, the trustees consented to admit women provided $100,000 could be raised in a year, and Susan served on the fund-raising committee with her friend Helen Barrett Montgomery. Because the alumni of the University of Rochester opposed coeducation, and the city's wealthiest men were indifferent, progress was slow, but the trustees were persuaded to extend the time and to reduce by one-half the amount to be raised. With so much else on her mind in 1900, including the sudden death of her brother Merritt, she had given the fund little thought until the committee appealed to her in desperation when only one day remained in which to raise the last $8,000. Immediately she went into action, remembering that Mary had talked of willing the University $2,000 if it became coeducational, she persuaded her to pledge that amount now. Then, setting out in a carriage on a very hot September morning, she slowly collected pledges for all but $2,000. As the trustees were in session, and likely to adjourn any minute, she appealed to Samuel Wilder, one of Rochester's prominent elder citizens who had already contributed to guarantee that amount until she could raise it. To this, he gladly agreed. Reaching the trustees' meeting with Mrs. Montgomery just in time, with pledges assuring the payment of the full $50,000, she was amazed at their reception. Instead of rejoicing with them, the trustees began to quibble over Samuel Wilder's guarantee of the last $2,000 because of the state of his health. When she offered her life insurance as security, they still put her off, telling her to come back in a few days. Even then they continued to quibble, but finally admitted that the woman had won. This allusioned she wrote in her diary, not a trustee has given anything, although there are several millionaires among them. Only her life insurance policy and her dogged persistence had saved the day. This effort to open Rochester University to women, on top of a very full and worrisome year, was so taxing and so disillusioning that she became seriously ill. When she recovered sufficiently for a drive, she asked to be taken to the university campus, and afterward wrote in her diary, as I drove over the campus, I felt these are not forbidden grounds to the girls of the city any longer. It is good to feel that the old doors sway on their hinges to women. Will the vows be kept to them? Will the girls have equal chances with the boys? They promised well, the fulfillment will be seen, whether there shall not be some hitch from the proposed to a separate school. Still keeping her watchful eye on the National American Association, Susan traveled to Minneapolis in the spring of 1901 for the first annual convention under the new administration. There was talk of an entire new deal, the retirement of all who had served under Miss Anthony, and the election of a new cabinet of officers. And Susan was so concerned that there might also be a change in the presidency that she felt she must be on hand to guide and steady the proceedings. Mrs. Cat was re-elected, and Susan returned to Rochester well satisfied and ready to devote herself to completing the fourth volume of the history of women's suffrage, on which she and Mrs. Harper had been working intermittently for the past year. It was published late in 1902. While working on the history, Susan, although more than satisfied with Mrs. Harper's work, often thought nostalgically of her happy, stimulating years of collaboration with Mrs. Stanton. She seldom saw Mrs. Stanton now, but they kept in touch with each other by letter. In the spring of 1902 she visited Mrs. Stanton twice in New York, and planned to return in November to celebrate Mrs. Stanton's 87th birthday. In anticipation, she wrote Mrs. Stanton, It is fifty-one years since we first met, and we have been busy through every one of them stirring up the world to recognize the rights of women. We little dreamed when we began this contest that half a century later we would be compelled to leave the finish of the battle to another generation of women. But our hearts are filled with joy to know that they enter upon this task equipped with a college education, with business experience, with the freely admitted right to speak in public, all of which were denied to women fifty years ago. These strong, courageous, capable young women will take our place and complete our work. There is an army of them where we were but a handful. Two weeks before Mrs. Stanton's birthday, Susan was stunned by a telegram announcing that her old comrade had passed away in her chair. Bewildered and desolate, she sat alone in her study for several hours, trying bravely to endure her grief. Then came the reporters for copy, which only this heartbroken woman could give. I cannot express myself at all as I feel, she haltingly told them. I'm too crushed to speak. If I had died first, she would have found beautiful phrases to describe our friendship, but I cannot put it into words. From New York, where she had gone for the funeral, she wrote in anguish to Mrs. Harper. Oh, the voice is stilled, which I loved to hear for fifty years. Always I have felt that I must have Mrs. Stanton's opinion of things before I knew where I stood myself. I am all at sea, but the laws of nature are still going on, with no shadow or turning. What a wonder it is. It goes right on and on, no matter who lives or who dies. National Women's Suffrage Conventions were still red-letter events to Susan, and she attended them no matter how great the physical effort, traveling to New Orleans in 1903. Of particular concern was the 1904 convention, because of Mrs. Katz's decision, at the very last moment, not to stand for re-election on account of her health. Looking over the field, Susan saw no one capable of taking her place but Anna Howard Shaw. Not to be able to turn to Mrs. Stanton's capable daughter, Harriet Stanton Blatch, at this time was disappointing, but Harriet's long absence in England had made her more or less of a stranger to the membership of the National American Association, and for some reason she did not seem to fit in, lacking her mother's warmth and appeal. I don't see anybody in the whole rank of our suffrage movement to take her, Mrs. Katz, place but you. Susan now wrote Anna Howard Shaw. If you will take it with a salary of, say, two thousand dollars, I will go ahead and try to see what I can do. We must not let the society down into feeble hands. Don't say no for the life of you, for if Mrs. Katz persists in going out, we shall simply have to accept it, and we must hide over what the best material that we have, and you are the best, and would you have taken office four years ago, you would have been elected overwhelmingly. Anna could not refuse Aunt Susan, and when she was elected with Mrs. Katz as Vice President, Susan breathed freely again. It warmed Susan's heart to enter the convention on her 84th birthday to a thundering welcome, to banter with Mrs. Upton who called her to the platform, and to stop the applause with a smile and, there now girls, that's enough. Nothing could have been more appropriate for her birthday than the Colorado Jubilee over which she presided and which gave irrefutable evidence of the success of women's suffrage in that state. There was rejoicing too over Australia, where women had been voting since 1902, and over the new hope in Europe, in Denmark, where women had chosen her birthday to stage a demonstration in favor of the pending franchise bill. For the last time, she spoke to a Senate committee on the Women's Suffrage Amendment. Standing before these indifferent men, a tired warrior at the end of a long hard campaign, she reminded them that she alone remained of those who thirty-five years before, in 1869, had appealed to Congress for justice. And I, she added, shall not be able to come much longer. We have waited, she told them. We stood aside for the Negro. We waited for the millions of immigrants. Now we must wait till the Hawaiians, the Filipinos, and the Puerto Ricans are enfranchised. Then, no doubt, the Cubans will have their turn. For all these ignorant alien peoples, educated women have been compelled to stand aside and wait. Then, with mounting in patience, she asked them, how long will this injustice, this outrage, continue? Their answer to her was silence. They sent no report to the Senate on the Women's Suffrage Amendment, yet she was able to say to her reporter of the New York Sun, I have never lost my faith, not for a moment in fifty years. CHAPTER XXVI Susan was on the ocean in May 1904 with her sister Mary, and a group of good friends, headed for a meeting of the International Council of Women in Berlin. What drew her to Berlin was the plan initiated by Carrie Chapman-Cat to form an International Women's Suffrage Alliance prior to the meetings of the International Council. This had been Susan's dream and Mrs. Stanton's in 1883, when they first conferred with women of other countries regarding an International Women's Suffrage Organization, and found only the women of England ready to unite on such a radical program. Now that women had worked together successfully in the International Council for sixteen years on other less controversial matters relating to women, she and Mrs. Cat were confident that a few of them at least were willing to unite to demand the vote. Even as a matter of course to preside over this gathering of suffragists in Berlin, Susan received an enthusiastic welcome. For her it was a momentous occasion, and eager to spread news of the meeting far and wide, she could not understand the objections of many of the delegates to the presence of reporters who they feared might send out sensational copy. My friends, what are we here for? She asked her more timid colleagues. We have come from many countries, traveled thousands of miles to form an organization for a great international work, and do we want to keep it a secret from the public? No. Welcome all reporters who want to come, the more the better. Let all we say and do here be told far and wide. Let the people everywhere know that in Berlin women from all parts of the world have banded themselves together to demand political freedom. I rejoice in the presence of these reporters, and instead of excluding them from our meetings let us help them to all the information we can, and ask them to give it the widest publicity. This won the battle for the reporters, who gave her rousing applause, and the news flashed over the wires was sympathetic, dignified, and abundant. It told the world of the formation of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance by women from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Norway, and Denmark, to secure the enfranchisement of women of all nations. It praised the honorary president, Susan B. Anthony, and the American women who took over the leadership of this international venture, Kerry Chapman-Cat, the president, and Rachel Foster Avery, corresponding secretary. To celebrate the occasion, German suffragists called a public mass meeting, and Susan, eager to rejoice with them, was surprised to find members of the International Council disgruntled and accusing the International Women's Suffrage Alliance of stealing their thunder, and casting the dark shadow of women's suffrage over their conference. To placate them and restore harmony she stayed away from this public meeting, but she could not control the demand for her presence. Where is Susan B. Anthony, where the first words spoken as the mass meeting opened, then immediately the audience rose and burst into cheers which continued without a break for ten minutes. Anna Howard Shaw, there on the platform, and deeply moved by this tribute to Aunt Susan, later described how she felt. Every second of that time I seemed to see Miss Anthony alone in her hotel room, longing with all her big heart to be with us as we longed to have her. Afterwards, when we burst in upon her and told her of the great demonstration the mere mention of her name had caused, her lips quivered under brave old eyes filled with tears. The next morning her girls brought her the Berlin newspapers, translating for her the report of the meeting, and these heartwarming lines, the Americans call her Aunt Susan. She is our Aunt Susan too. This was but a foretaste of her reception throughout her stay in Berlin. To the International Council she was Susan B. Anthony of the world, the woman of the hour whom all wanted to meet. Every time she entered the conference hall the audience rose and remained standing until she was seated. Every mention of her name brought forth cheers. The many young women, acting as ushers, were devoted to her and eager to serve her. They greeted her by kissing her hand. Embarrassed at first by such homage she soon responded by kissing them on the cheek. The Empress Victoria Augusta, receiving the delegates in the royal palace, singled out Susan, and instead of following the custom of kissing the Empress's hand Susan bowed as she would to any distinguished American, explaining that she was a Quaker and did not understand the etiquette of the court. The Empress praised Susan's great work, and unwilling to let such an opportunity slip by, Susan offered the suggestion that Emperor William, who had done so much to build up his country, might now wish to raise the status of German women. To this the Empress replied with a smile, The gentlemen are very slow to comprehend this great movement. When the talented Negro, Mary Church Terrell, addressing the International Council in both German and French, received an ovation, Susan's cup of joy was filled to the brim, for she glimpsed the bright promise of a world without barriers of sex or race. The newspapers welcomed her home, and in her own comfortable sitting room she read Rochester's greeting in the Democrat and Chronicle. There are women suffragists and anti-suffragists, but all Rochester people, irrespective of opinion, are Anthony men and women. We admire and esteem one so single-minded, earnest and unselfish, who with eighty-four years to her credit is still too busy and useful to think of growing old. Her happiness over this welcome was clouded, however, by the serious illness of her brother Daniel, and she and Mary hurried to Kansas to see him. Two months later he passed away. Now only she and Mary were left of the large Anthony family. Without Daniel the world seemed empty. His strength of character, independence and sympathy with her work had comforted and encouraged her all through her life. A fearless editor, a successful businessman, a politician with principles, he had played an important role in Kansas, and proud of him she cherished the many tributes published throughout the country. Courageously she now picked up the threads of her life. Her precious, national American woman suffrage association was out of her hands, but she still had the history of women's suffrage to distribute, and it gave her a great sense of accomplishment to hand on to future generations this record of women's struggle for freedom. Missing the stimulus of work with her girls, she took more and more pleasure in the company of William and Mary Gannett of the First Unitarian Church, whose liberal views appealed to her strongly. She liked to have young people about her and follow the lives of all her nieces and nephews with the greatest interest, spurring on their ambitions and helping finance their education. The frequent visits of niece Lucy were a great joy during these years, as was the nearness of niece Anna Oh, who married and settled in Rochester. The young Canadian girl, Anna Dan, had become almost indispensable to her and to Mary, as companion, secretary, and nurse, and her marriage left a void in the household. Anna Dan was married at Seventeen Madison Street by Anna Howard Shaw, with Susan beaming upon her like a proud grandmother. Longing to see one more state, one for suffrage, Susan carefully followed the news from the field, looking hopefully to California and urging her girls to keep hammering away there in spite of defeats. Her eyes were also on the territory of Oklahoma, where a constitution was being drafted preparatory to statehood. The present bill for the new state, she wrote Anna Howard Shaw in December 1904, is an insult to women of Oklahoma, such as has never been perpetrated before. We have always known that women were in reality ranked with idiots and criminals, but it has never been said in words that the state should restrict or bridge the suffrage on account of illiteracy, minority, sex, conviction of felony, mental condition, etc. We must fight this bill to the utmost. The brightest spot in the West was Oregon, where suffrage had been defeated in 1900 by only two thousand votes. In June 1905, when the National American Association held its first far Western Convention in Portland during the Lewis and Clark Exposition, Susan could not keep away, although she had never expected to go over the mountains again. As she traveled to Portland with Mary, and a hundred or more delegates in special cars, she recalled her many long, tiring trips through the West to carry the message of women's suffrage to the frontier. In comparison, this was a triumphal journey, showing her, as nothing else could, what her work had accomplished. Greeted at railroad stations along the way by enthusiastic crowds, showered with flowers and gifts, she stood on the back platform of the train with her girls, shaking hands, waving her handkerchief, and making an occasional speech. Presiding over the opening session of the Portland Convention, standing in a veritable garden of flowers which had been presented to her, she remarked with a droll smile. This is rather different from the receptions I used to get fifty years ago. I am thankful for this change of spirit which has come over the American people. On Woman's Day, she was chosen to speak at the unveiling of the statue of Sacajawea, the Indian woman who had led Lewis and Clark through the dangerous mountain passages to the Pacific, winning their gratitude and their praise. In the story of Sacajawea, who had been overlooked by the government when every man in the Lewis and Clark expedition had been rewarded with a large tract of land, Susan saw the perfect example of man's thoughtless oversight of the valuable services of women. Looking up at the bronze statue of the Indian woman, her papoose on her back and her arm outstretched to the Pacific, Susan said simply, this is the first statue erected to a woman because of deeds of daring. This recognition of the assistance rendered by a woman in the discovery of this great section of the country is but the beginning of what is due. Susan, with a sunlight playing on her hair and lighting up her face, she appealed to the men of Oregon for the vote. Next year, she reminded them, the men of this proud state, made possible by a woman, will decide whether women shall at last have the rights in it which have been denied them so many years. Let men remember the part women have played in its settlement and progress and vote to give them these rights which belong to every citizen. Reporters were at Susan's door when she returned to Rochester for comments on the ex-president Cleveland's tirade against clubwomen and women's suffrage in the popular Lady's Home Journal. Pure folder-roll, she told them, adding testily, I would think that Grover Cleveland was about the last person to talk about the sanctity of the home and women's sphere. This was good copy for Republican newspapers, and they made the most of it, as women throughout the country added their protest to Susan's. A popular jingle of the day ran, Susan B. Anthony. She took quite a fall out of Grover C. Susan, however, had something far more important on her mind than fencing with Grover Cleveland, an interview with President Theodore Roosevelt. Here was a man eager to right wrongs, to break monopolies, to see justice done to the Negro, a man who talked of a square deal for all, and yet women's suffrage aroused no response in him. In November 1905 she undertook a trip to Washington for the express purpose of talking with him. The year before, at a White House reception, he had singled her out to stand at his side in the receiving line. She looked for the same friendliness now. Memorandum in hand, she plied him with questions which he carefully evaded, but she would not give up. Mr. Roosevelt, she earnestly pleaded, This is my principal request. It is almost the last request I shall ever make of anybody. Before you leave the presidential chair, recommend to Congress to submit to the legislatures a constitutional amendment which will enfranchise women and thus take your place in history with Lincoln, the great emancipator. I beg of you not to close your term of office without doing this. To this he made no response, and trying once more to ring from him some slight indication of sympathy for her cause, she added, Mr. President, your influence is so great that just one word from you in favor of women's suffrage would give our cause a tremendous impetus. The public knows my attitude, he tersely replied. I recommended it when governor of New York. True, she acknowledged, but that was a long time ago. Our enemies say that this was the opinion of your younger years, and that since you have been president you have never uttered one word that could be construed as an endorsement. They have no cause to think I have changed my mind, he suavely replied as he bade her goodbye. In the months that followed he gave her no sign that her interview had made the slightest impression. One of the most satisfying honors bestowed on Susan during these last years was the invitation to be present at Brynmore College in 1902 for the unveiling of a bronze portrait medallion of herself. Brynmore, under its brilliant young president M. Kerry Thomas, herself a pioneer and establishing the highest standards for women's education, showed no such timidity as Vassar where neither Susan nor Elizabeth Cady Stanton had been welcome as speakers. At Brynmore Susan talked freely and frankly with the students and best of all became better acquainted with M. Kerry Thomas and her enterprising friend Mary Garrett of Baltimore, who was using her great wealth for the advancement of women. She longed to channel their abilities to women's suffrage and a few years later arranged for a national convention in their home city Baltimore, appealing to them to make it an outstanding success. Arriving in Baltimore in January 1906 for this convention Susan was the honored guest in Mary Garrett's luxurious home. Frail and ill she was unable to attend all the sessions as in the past, but she was present at the highlight of this very successful convention, the college evening arranged by M. Kerry Thomas. With women's colleges still resisting the discussion of women's suffrage and the association of collegiate alumni refusing to support it, the college evening marked the first public endorsement of this controversial subject by college women. Up to this time the only encouraging sign had been the formation in 1900 of the college equal suffrage league by two young Radcliffe alumni, Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin. Now here, in conservative Baltimore, college presidents and college faculty gave women's suffrage their blessing, and Susan listened happily as distinguished women one after another allied themselves to the cause. Dr. Mary E. Woolley, who was president of Mount Holyoke was developing Mary Lyons Pioneer Seminary into a high-ranking college, Lucy Salmon, Mary A. Jordan and Mary W. Calkins of the faculties of Vassar, Smith and Wellesley, Eva Perry Moore, a trustee of Vassar, and president of the Association of Collegiate Alumni, with whom she dared differ on the subject, Maud Wood Park, representing the younger generation in the College Equal Suffrage League, and last of all the president of Bryn Maher M. Kerry Thomas. After expressing her gratitude to the pioneers of this great movement, Miss Thomas turned to Susan and said, To you, Miss Anthony, belongs by right as to know other women in the world's history, the love and gratitude of all women in every country of the civilized globe. We, your daughters in spirit, rise up today and call you blessed, of such as you were the lines of the poet Yates written, They shall be remembered forever, they shall be alive forever, they shall be speaking forever, the people shall hear them forever. During the thunderous applause, Susan came forward to respond, her face alight and the audience rose. If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight. She said simply, The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will someday be the nation's greatest strength, tell their story to the world. They give the highest joy and encouragement to me. During her visit at the home of Mary Garrett, Susan spoke freely with her and with M. Kerry Thomas of the needs of the National American Association, particularly of the standing fund of one hundred thousand dollars of which she had dreamed and which she had started to raise. Now, like an answer to prayer, Mary Garrett and President Thomas, fresh from their successful money-raising campaigns for Johns Hopkins and Bryn Maw, offered to undertake a similar project for women's suffrage, proposing to raise sixty thousand dollars, twelve thousand dollars a year for the next five years. As we sat at her feet day after day between sessions of the convention, listening to what she wanted us to do to help women and asking her questions, recalled M. Kerry Thomas in her later years, I realized that she was the greatest person I had ever met. She seemed to me everything that a human being could be, a leader to die for or to live for, and follow wherever she led. Shortly after the convention, Susan went to Washington with the women who were scheduled to speak at the Congressional Hearing on Women's Suffrage. In her room at the Shoram Hotel, a room with a view of the Washington Monument, which the manager always saved for her, she stood at the window looking out over the city as if saying farewell. Then, turning to Anna Shaw, she said with emotion, I think it is the most beautiful monument in the whole world. That evening she sat quietly through the many tributes offered to her on her eighty-sixth birthday, longing to tell all her friends the gratitude and hope that welled up in her heart. Finally she rose, and standing by Anna Howard Shaw who was presiding, she impulsively put her hand on her shoulder and praised her for her loyal support. Then turning to the other officers, she thanked them for all they had done. There are others also, she added, just as true and devoted to the cause. I wish I could name everyone, but with such women consecrating their lives, she hesitated a moment, and then in her clear rich voice added with emphasis, failure is impossible. In Rochester, in the home she so dearly loved, she spent her last weeks thinking of the cause and the women who would carry it on. Longing to talk with Anna Shaw, she sent for her, but Anna, feeling she was needed, came even before a letter could reach her. With Anna at her bedside, Susan was content. I want you to give me a promise, she pleaded, reaching for Anna's hand. Promise me you will keep the presidency of the association as long as you are well enough to do the work. I am deeply moved, Anna replied, but how can I promise that? I can keep it only as long as others wish me to keep it. Promise to make them wish you to keep it, Susan urged, just as I wish you to keep it. After a moment she continued, I do not know anything about what comes to us after this life ends. But if I have any conscious knowledge of this world and of what you are doing, I shall not be far away from you. And in times of need I will help you all I can. Who knows? Perhaps I may be able to do more for the cause after I am gone, and while I am here. A few days later, on March 13, 1906, she passed away, her hand in Anna's. Asked a few years before, if she believed that all women in the United States would ever be given the vote, she had replied with assurance, it will come. But I shall not see it. It is inevitable. We could no more deny for ever the right of self-government to one half our people, than we could keep the Negro forever in bondage. It will not be wrought by the same disrupting forces that freed the slave, but come at will, and I believe within a generation. She had so long to see women voting throughout the United States, to see them elected to legislatures in Congress, but for her there had only been the promise of fulfillment in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho, and far away in New Zealand and Australia. Failure is impossible was the rallying cry she left with her girls, to spur them on in the long discouraging struggle ahead. Fourteen more years of campaigning, until on August 26, 1920, women were enfranchised throughout the United States by the Nineteenth Amendment. Even then their work was not finished, for she had looked farther ahead to the time when men and women everywhere, regardless of race, religion or sex, would enjoy equal rights. Her challenging words, failure is impossible, still echo and re-echo through the years, as the crusade for human rights goes forward and men and women together strive to build and preserve a free world. End of Chapter 26 Recording by Phyllis Vincelli End of Susan B. Anthony Rebel Crusader Humanitarian by Alma Lutz