THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN IN CONGRESS IT is hard for the writer of these words to get past the simple title of this article, for one cannot but be aware that from all sorts and conditions of men-from the compositor who sets up the type for it, to the man in the street-will come challenge and interrogation; and because so many considerations, present, retrospective and prospective, are necessary for explanation, it is hard to clear the way. Perhaps it would be wiser for me to have the trooping of our colours at the very start, and to say that the challenge will be levelled at and the interrogations made of two thousand members, including four hundred speakers from every quarter of the globe, in Congress assembled. To go upon parade as it were, and into the garish manœuvres of a grand review, is of course an unoriginal way of warning your questioner and showing your strength. That, however, is not my object. Our organisation has less to fear from opposition than from indifference and languid or cynical interest. I mention the strength and cosmopolitan character of this Congress, convened by the International Council of Women, chiefly to make it clear that it is no local display, no Hyde Park demonstration, no hasty pudding of feminine fads and fancies, so to speak; but a long planned and carefully elected parliament of women workers, intent on doing good and ready to be challenged and catechised. The most obvious question of the most careless questioner-when so many are uninformed and so many are careless-is: What is the object of it—what is the use of it—what is the good of it? We must go back a little before we answer. Think of this country a hundred years ago. Who represented the women workers of Great Britain and Ireland, as we understand representation to-day? Look through that admirable Englishwoman's Year Book, compiled by Miss Emily Janes, wherein are three hundred pages, all too short to chronicle the many societies, institutions and organisations projected and managed by women; then try to discover traces of such organisations in the year 1800, and you will find that nothing of the sort existed. As to educational institutions?-The first College for Women only celebrated its jubilee the other day, and in 1860, when the first class for book-keeping for women was started, grave doubts were expressed lest it should take woman out of her proper sphere. As to trained nursing?-There was no such thing in England until it was given to Florence Nightingale to evolve the system out of her terrible experiences in the Crimean War. As to associations for young women?-In 1861 the first home for young women was started by Lady Kinnaird in connection with the Young Women's Christian Association, and ten years later we find Lord Shaftesbury advising Lady Kinnaird to give it up because of the little progress that had been made. And to-day there are more than 5,000 branches and 500,000 members all over the world, without speaking of the many other societies for girls which have been formed, and which have succeeded. It is scarcely possible to believe how recent has been the origin of all the women's work of the present day, and that at the beginning of this century organised women's work did not exist outside the Roman Catholic sisterhoods and the Society of Friends. Apart from these, the women workers of a century ago consisted only of a few brave-hearted, large-minded women, working here and there in loneliness to carry out ideals which were deemed but madness by those around them. We have entered into the individual labours of pioneers such as Hannah More, Elizabeth Fry, and Sarah Martin, but we have found out that the individual must be included in the organisation, and that union is strength. We must assume that the old prevailing idea that women could not work together in harmony and to good effect must surely be exploded, when we view the formidable array of women's organisations doing noble service on every hand. But the multiplicity and the success of such associations have their drawback. We who are interested in women's work and women's organisations are often tempted to groan within ourselves as day by day the post brings us appeals for sympathy and help, for co-operation in some fresh attempt to carry out some mission, or to start some new institution for the benefit of humanity. As it is, there seems to be scarcely room for those already existing. We are often barely aware of the very names of many of the existing associations in our own districts, much less can we be in touch with them. And so it comes about that walls grow up between various sections of workers. They neither know nor appreciate one another's work; nay, they are sometimes disposed to be jealous and prejudiced in regard to it. One association invades the province of another, strife and envy enter in, an unholy competition is set on foot as to which church or society shall gain the most success or the greatest number of adherents, and the real usefulness and inner life of the work itself is often impaired or wholly destroyed. It is this position of matters which has begotten a longing for some link between all our many organisations, which, while not interfering with the internal regulations of any society, will yet have the power of bringing all workers for the good of the community into connection with one another for ends common to all. It is this longing which has brought about the federation of a large number of kindred societies, which has been the mainspring of so many of the conferences and congresses of which we hear. It is this longing which, during the past six or seven years, has evolved the National Union of Workers in Great Britain out of the annual conferences held yearly since 1888 with ever-increasing benefit to those who have taken part in them, and whose governing body is now the National Council of Women of Great Britain and Ireland. From this has come the formation of National Councils of Women in various countries, and out of it has been created the International Council of Women itself, which binds them all together and is now responsible for convening this great Congress. The expression of this longing may be seen in the basis drawn up in 1888 by the originators of the International Council : We, women of all nations, sincerely believing that the best good of humanity will be advanced by greater unity of thought, sympathy, and purpose, and that an organised movement of women will best conserve the highest good of the family and of the State, do hereby band ourselves together in a confederation of workers, to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law. THE GOLDEN RULE-Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you. Again, in the following article may be found the safeguards for the organisations that join the Council: This Council is organised in the interest of no one propaganda, and has no power over its auxiliaries beyond that of suggestion and sympathy, therefore no society voting to become auxiliary to this Council shall thereby render itself liable to be interfered with in respect to its complete organic unity, independence or methods of work, or become committed to any principle or method of any other society, or to any utterance or act of the Council itself beyond compliance with the terms of the Constitution. It may be mentioned that the terms of the Constitution simply involve agreement with the general basis quoted above, a vote of each individual association federating to join the Council, and payment of the dues prescribed. It argues great foresight and breadth of mind in those who drew up this Constitution, that from the beginning they should have laid down so definitely the principle that no federated society could be interfered with, nor committed to any purpose or principle by any act or utterance of the Council; and that the Council itself is distinctly stated to have been formed for the furtherance of no one propaganda. Very plain speaking was needed on these points, for the mere fact that the national and international councils were originated by women who had been mainly identified with the movement for the extension of the suffrage to women, and the further fact that the first President of the National Council of Women of the United States was Miss Frances Willard, the much beloved President of the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union, have led to a belief that the Council is pledged as a Council first and foremost to further the total abstinence cause and the woman's suffrage movement, and that it was formed for the purpose of carrying out those objects. If this were the case, the main object of the Council would be destroyed, for in order to make it of real service to the country it must include representatives from all sections of workers, from all classes, from all creeds and churches, from organisations holding different, even opposing views, but all pledged to do something, according to their own lights, towards furthering 'the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom, and law.' The advocates of rival schemes for education and reform can all join on such a basis, each can have an opportunity of supporting her views before the others and before the public: on the one hand ardent woman suffragists, and on the other hand workers who oppose all participation by women in public affairs, can make their voices heard, and yet feel that they are both actuated by the same high motive; women who believe that prohibition and total abstinence are the only methods of solving the drink question, and others who fear that legislation in this direction would be followed by a lamentable reaction, can learn to believe in each other's singlemindedness by meeting in this common Council; and women of the highest culture and education can join hand in hand with women whose lives give no opportunity for study, but who are giving their best-their all-to redeem the world according to the mission which they feel has been entrusted to them. It is then the representatives of this movement who have called together this International Congress of Women, where delegates from The United States of America Canada Switzerland Five sections have been arranged to deal respectively with educational, professional, industrial, political, and social matters. And in order to judge of the value of the testimony of the workers gathered together in the Congress, it may be well to inquire more nearly regarding actual results which have been effected through the banding of women's societies into National Councils in various countries. I will take as an illustration the Council of whose inner working I know most: the National Council of Women of Canada. That Council is now nearly six years old, and the twenty Local Councils and the five National Associations federated with it are led by many of the most representative women in the Dominion, belonging not only to all sections of the Anglican and Protestant Churches, but also to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Jewish communion. Every variety of effort for the good of body, mind and soul, has its adherents in its ranks, and the cordial approval and co-operation of most of the clergy and many of the leading men has happily been enlisted in its efforts. It must be remembered that the people in the Dominion are scattered over a vast country, and that each of the seven different provinces has its own legislature, its own distinctive laws and methods for internal government, for education and all social needs. This separation in domestic affairs, together with vast distances and the variety of race, has tended to prevent the full realisation of national unity. This has been especially the case among women on whom household duties press heavily because of lack of servants, who, because of expense, cannot travel much, and to whom the people of other provinces were often entire strangers; but I believe that the creation of the National Council has paved the way for a very real amelioration of these conditions. The fact that every resolution sent up by a Local Council for consideration by the National Council must be sent out again to all the Local Councils from Victoria to Halifax to be discussed before it can be voted on, has brought the women of the different provinces more closely in touch with one another's circumstances and work and needs. The understanding thus attained has been strikingly manifested at the annual meetings of the Council which are held yearly in different cities, and at which representatives from every part of the country are present. In this way it has fully justified the words spoken at its first annual meeting, by the late Premier, Sir John Thompson: Let me say that no class in this country could appreciate more than public men the benefits that are aimed at in this movement. One other great and inevitable result will be that, besides helping forward all the institutions in the country, it will bind together in sympathy and closer citizenship those who are interested in charitable work; it will take them out of the influence of the thousand and |