the work of the Alliance. She said in part:

On a June day in 1904 the delegated representatives of seven
National Woman Suffrage Associations met in a little hall in
Berlin to discuss the practicability of completing a proposed
International Union. At that date there were in all the world
only ten countries in which woman suffrage organizations could be
found. Those of you who were present will well remember the
uncertainty and misgivings which characterized our deliberations.
The doubting delegates questioned whether the times were yet ripe
for this radical step; already over-taxed by the campaigns in
their respective countries they questioned whether the possible
benefits which might arise from international connection might
not be over-balanced by the burden it would impose. There were
delegates also who asked whether it was within the bounds of
possibilities that suffragists could work together in harmony
when they not only would represent differences of race and
character but widely different stages of development of the
movement itself. There were even more serious problems to be
considered. Some of our associations were pledged to universal
suffrage, some to Municipal, some to suffrage based upon a
property or educational qualification. How could such
differences, each defended as it was by intense conviction, be
united in a common platform?... Yet despite all these obstacles,
which at that time seemed to many well nigh insurmountable, our
International Alliance was founded "for better or worse" and I
think I may add "till death do us part."

Five years have passed away, prosperous, successful, triumphant
years; prosperous, for we have known no quarrel or
misunderstanding; successful, for the number of National
Associations in our Alliance has more than doubled; triumphant,
because the gains to our cause within the past five years are
more significant in effect and meaning than all which had come in
the years preceding. Indeed, when we look back over that little
stretch of time and observe the mighty changes which have come
within our movement; when we hear the reports of the awakening of
men and women to the justice of our cause all the way around the
world, I am sure that there is no pessimist among us who does not
realize tha