itizens in State and local elections. This step will be the most
conservative way of procedure. The control will remain, as now, in the
hands of a Legislature elected by men alone. If it prove
unsatisfactory to the men of the State any subsequent Legislature can
repeal the law."
A report of the International Suffrage Conference, which had been in
progress during the convention, and the forming of a committee to
further permanent organization, was made by its secretary, Miss
Goldstein, and the convention voted that the National American Woman
Suffrage Association should cooperate with this committee. The
nominations for office were made as usual by secret ballot and as
usual were so nearly unanimous that the secretary was instructed to
cast the vote. The only change in the present board was the election
of Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall, for many years prominent in the work in
Iowa, as second auditor in place of Dr. Eaton, whose professional
duties required all her time. Invitations for the next convention were
received from Niagara Falls, Detroit, St. Louis, Denver, Baltimore and
New Orleans. The Board of Trade, the Era Club and the Progressive
Union united in the one from New Orleans, which was accepted and
cordial thanks returned for the others.
The resolutions presented by Mr. Blackwell, chairman of the
committee, rejoiced in the suffrage already gained and the securing in
the past year of laws in various States giving equal guardianship of
their children to mothers and increased property rights to wives.
They called the attention of the Civil Service Commission to
discriminations made against women and emphasized the protest of the
preceding year against government regulation of vice in the
Philippines. Later at an executive meeting of the board a vigorous set
of resolutions was prepared, stating that the reports of Governor
William H. Taft and General McArthur admitted and defended "certified
examinations of women" in the new possessions of the United States. It
showed at length the results of government regulation in other
countries which had caused it to be abandoned and declared that "such
things ought not to be permitted under the American flag."[22]
Mrs. Colby's report on Industrial Problems Relating to Women cited as
one example of discrimination: "An effort is now being made in
Congress to do away with the annual sick leave of employees, because,
it is claimed, women take so much advantage of it. Investigatio
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