n
shows, however, that the per cent. of sick leave is highest in the
Inter-State Commerce Commission, where not a woman is employed--twelve
per cent.--and only seven per cent. in the Agricultural Department,
where a very large number are employed." She gave numerous instances
of unfairness against women on the civil service lists, said that
women wage earners must find a forum on the suffrage platform where
they can plead their cause and carefully analyze the industrial
problems especially affecting women. Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock, chairman
of the Press Committee, gave a comprehensive report stating that while
50,000 news stories and articles had been sent to the papers in 1900
the number had increased to 175,000 during the last year and there was
reason to believe that three-fourths of them had been used. The
largest city papers freely accepted the articles.

Former U. S. Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire came in for one
session and was called to the platform for a speech. He was much loved
by the suffragists, as he had been one of the strongest champions of
woman suffrage during his many years in the Senate and had brought the
Federal Amendment to a vote on Jan. 25, 1887. (History of Woman
Suffrage, Volume IV, chapter VI.) Letters of affectionate greeting
were sent to the pioneers and veteran workers, Mrs. Stanton, Isabella
Beecher Hooker, Mary S. Anthony, Jane H. Spofford, Sallie Clay
Bennett, Caroline Hallowell Miller and Abigail S. Duniway. The deaths
among the older and more prominent members during the year had been
many and fifty were mentioned in the memorial resolutions.

The notable social features of the week were the afternoon receptions
given by Mrs. Julia Langdon Barber at her beautiful home, Belmont, and
by Mrs. John B. Henderson at Boundary Castle, the latter followed the
next day by a dinner for the officers of the association and the
delegates from abroad. Both of these well-known Washington hostesses
were early suffragists and had often extended the hospitality of their
spacious homes to the individual leaders and to the conventions.

A very interesting address was given on the last evening by Madame
Friedland on Russian Women of Past Centuries. U. S. Senator Thomas M.
Patterson of Colorado presented a vigorous and convincing endorsement
of the practical working of woman suffrage in that State for the past
nineteen years and its benefits to women and to civic life. U. S.
Senator John F. Shafro