ist of names from
Utah.

CHAPTER VIII.

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN--HEARING OF 1888.

The year 1888 is distinguished for the largest and most representative
woman's convention held up to that time--the International Council of
Women, which met in Washington, D. C., March 25, continuing until
April 1. The origin of this great body is briefly stated in the
official report as follows: "Visiting England and France in 1882, Mrs.
Stanton conceived the idea of an International Council of Women
interested in the movement for suffrage, and pressed its consideration
on the leading reformers in those countries. A few accepted the idea,
and when Miss Anthony arrived in England early the following year,
they discussed the question fully with each other, and seeing that
such a convention was both advisable and practicable, they resolved to
call it in the near future. On the eve of their departure, at a
reception given them in Liverpool, the subject was presented and
favorably received. Among the guests were Priscilla Bright McLaren,
Margaret Bright Lucas, Alice Scatcherd and Margaret E. Parker. The
initiative steps for an International Council were then taken and a
committee of correspondence appointed.[64]

"When Mrs. Stanton and Miss Anthony returned to America it was
decided, in consultation with friends, to celebrate the fourth decade
of the woman suffrage movement by calling an International Council.
At its nineteenth annual convention, January, 1887, the National
Suffrage Association had resolved to assume the entire responsibility
and to extend the invitation to all associations of women in the
trades, professions and reforms, as well as those advocating political
rights. The herculean task of making all the necessary arrangements
fell chiefly on Miss Anthony, Miss Rachel G. Foster (Avery) and Mrs.
May Wright Sewall, as Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Spofford were in Europe.
To say nothing of the thought, anxiety, time and force expended, we
can appreciate in some measure the magnitude of the undertaking by its
financial cost of nearly $12,000.

"This was the first attempt to convene an international body of women
and its conception would have been possible only with those to whom
the whole cause of woman is indebted for its most daring and important
innovations. The call for this meeting was issued in June, 1887:

The first public demand for equal educational, industrial,
professional and political rights