ter the last revolution
gave the suffrage to all citizens without distinction of sex and women
have voted in Yucatan but the elections throughout the country have
not been settled enough for them to exercise their right. There are
suffrage societies among the different classes of women and the
wage-earners are especially insistent on having a voice in the
Government. The President is quoted as having said that the time when
women will vote is near at hand.

FOOTNOTES:

[220] The History is indebted for the material in this division to
Miss Annie Furuhjelm of Helsingfors, member of Parliament,
vice-president of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance and
president of the Woman's Alliance Union of Finland formed in 1892.

CHAPTER LIV.

THE INTERNATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE ALLIANCE.

An international association of the groups of women in various
countries who were working to obtain the suffrage was for many years
the strong desire of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Miss Susan B.
Anthony, two leaders of the movement in the United States. When,
however, in the early eighties the first steps were taken they found
that Great Britain was the only one with organizations for this
purpose. They visited there in 1883-4 and found so much sympathy with
the idea that a committee was appointed to cooperate with one in the
United States in arranging for an International Woman Suffrage
Association.[221] It was decided as a first step to hold an
International Suffrage Convention but after a correspondence which
extended through several years, because of the difficulty of getting
in touch with women in the different countries who were interested, it
was considered advisable to broaden the scope of the undertaking and
call an International Congress of Women engaged in all kinds of work
for the general welfare. This was held in Washington, D. C., in March,
1888, under the auspices of the National Suffrage Association and was
the largest convention of women which had ever taken place up to that
time. It resulted in a permanent International Council of Women, which
in a few years established a Standing Committee on Suffrage and Rights
of Citizenship with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw as chairman. The National
Councils in all countries formed auxiliary committees and made woman
suffrage a part of their program and it had a prominent place at the
National and International Congresses. The woman suffrage leaders in
the United States did not