) read an interesting
paper, Our Four Friends, compiled from the answers by the Governors of
Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho to a letter from Miss Anthony asking
for a summary of the results of woman suffrage after a trial of from
eight to thirty-five years. A Declaration of Principles, which had
been prepared by Mrs. Catt, Dr. Shaw, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell and
Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, was read by Mrs. Harper and adopted by the
convention as expressing the sentiment of the association. [See
Appendix, chapter IV.] Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery (Penn.) and Dr. Shaw
were appointed delegates to the International Suffrage Conference at
Berlin in June in addition to the International Suffrage Committee
from the United States, Miss Anthony, Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Lucretia L.
Blankenburg (Penn.), with three others yet to be selected.

In her report as corresponding secretary Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.)
told of the interest which the convention of the preceding year in New
Orleans had awakened in the South and of the generous donation of a
month of Dr. Shaw's valuable time which she had given to a Southern
tour. This included the State Agricultural, State Normal and State
Industrial Colleges of Louisiana and various places in Texas,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. "While it might be said
of her addresses, 'She came, she spoke, she conquered,'" declared
Miss Gordon, "it was clearly shown that the South was not ready for
organization." Miss Gordon said of attending the National Conference
of Charities and Corrections as a State delegate appointed by the
Governor of Louisiana: "I found that resolutions of endorsement were
contrary to the policy of the conference, yet, except in our own
organization, I have never met such a unanimity of opinion upon the
justice of woman suffrage as well as upon the expediency of the
woman's vote to secure intelligent and preventive legislation as a
remedy for the many evils they were seeking to combat."

The program for the first evening included short addresses by the
general officers and in opening the meeting Mrs. Catt said: "You will
all be disappointed not to have the promised addresses from Miss
Anthony and Mrs. Upton. It has been suggested that I might say that
Miss Anthony has been unavoidably detained but I can't see why I
should not tell the truth. Miss Anthony is out in society tonight. She
was invited by President and Mrs. Roosevelt to the Army and Navy
reception at the White House