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1 Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Catt's International Address 1 (1908)

handle is hein.peggy/mrscat0001 and id is 1 raw text is: MRS. CATT'S INTERNATIONAL ADDRESS. The followin- address was delivered by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, President ot the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, at the Congress in Amsterdam, June 15, 1908: It is a suggestive coincidence that the opening day of this Congress com- memorates the anniversary of the signing of the immortal Magna Charta. That event stands out dis- tinctly against the background of seven centuries, as one of the most important in the history of man. The historian Green says of it: The treat Charter marks the transition from the age of traditional rights to the age of written legislation, of Par- liaments and statutes. It pointed as certainly, we may add, to the coming of popular government behind the Par- liaments. and to the will of the ma- jority behind the statutes. It point- ed as unmistakably to the coming of votes for men and women. Given the Magna Charti, man suffrage was bound to follow; an iven man suf- frage, woman suffr ge became inev- itable. The New Era. The blessings of the new era, inaug- urated by this remarkable document, were not .enjoyed by England alone, but have been shared, as a common posse sion, by all the nations of the world. Thy Magna Charta, therefore, properly becomes the inheritance of all mankind, and June 13, appropriately, an international Memorial Day. Not Yet Complete. So sweeping have been the changes which have taken place since the sign- ing of the Charter that the age of the English Barons bears little resem- blance to our own; yet the political evolution presaged in 1215 is not yet complete, What celebration of the day could be more fitting than the openipg of a Congress which declares for the final step it tbat evolution? A Time of Rejoicing. We may make it also a day of re- joicing, for at no time since the move- ment for the enfranchisement of wo- men began have its advocates had so much cause for self-congratulation as now. The International Woman Suf- frage Alliance met in Copenhagen twenty-two months ago, and, in the brief time which has elapsed since then, the progress of our cause has been so rapid, the gains so substantial, the assurance of coming victory so cer- tain, that we may imagine the noble and brave pioneers of woman suf- frage, the men and women who were the torch-bearers of our movement, gathering today in some far-off celes- tial sphere, and singing together a glad paean of exultation. Norway's Victory. In 1907 Norway granted full suffrage rights and eligibility to women upon exceedingly generous terms. To one who has observed the attitude of na- tions toward our cause, this act of the Norwegian Parliament meant far more than an isolated victory. Long before, four of the United States of America, and New Zealand and Australia, had conferred full suffrage upon women; but everywhere opponents persistently refused to admit that these gains were important. They declared these States and nations had had no history and gave no asaurance of a stable future; they said they were too new, their

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