USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 37
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No more is required of woman than of man, for it is said: " God made her to match the men," not rival them, but perhaps not one in ten of the men who enter the legal profession succeeds, and not one in fifty of these attains any degree of eminence.
It is premature to attempt to judge of the effect of women lawyers on the bar, for as a class they are yet minors. The universal verdict concerning their reception by their brothers-in-law is that of courtesy, kindness, and cordial welcome.
Even if woman's achievements were placed at issue with those of the Alexanders, the Cæsars, the Hannibals and the Napoleons of the other sex, woman would not enter a nolle pros., nor lose her case by default, for it must be remembered that there are conquerors who do not inscribe the record of their conquests on the landscape, with sword and spear, nor write their victories with blood. In the enlargement of her legal privileges woman has invaded and conquered realms unknown to the Macedonian madman; by her identification with economic and political questions she has been an important factor in a type of civilization unimagined by the dread arbiter of Rome; in a successful campaign against civil disabilities and the allegations of incompetency she has executed vows more ennobling than the oath of the Carthaginian general, and in the uplifting of her sex she follows a diviner star of ambition than that which set
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at St. Helena. Contact with the world shows woman that she has not yet learned her strength. Acquaintance with history demonstrates that even such men as Webster, Clay and Douglas did not escape shipwreck on the troubled sea of worldly ambition.
It is particularly fitting for woman to enter the legal profession in view of her former status under the law. Where she has been most ignored, there should she vin- dicate her worthiness. Before that bar which at one time recognized her individual- ism, save when a criminal, should she demonstrate the dualism of sex. She who has suffered wrong should stand where wrongs are corrected.
In civil actions a large percentage of clients are women. In questions which involve foreclosure of mortgages, probating and contesting wills, collecting claims, settling estates, clearing titles, marriage and divorce laws, the custody of children, management of public schools and many others, it is not equitable for one sex to settle matters in which both have a vital interest.
In regard to the demand for women lawyers, it must be confessed that in the great mart called the world, where all classes of exchangeable things are regulated by the one universal law of " demand and supply," the " calls " for Helens and Cleopatras and Eugenias exceed the demand for Portias and Deborahs and Hypatias. Woman her- self must create a demand for her talents, by a broader education, by giving less atten- tion to petty details of life and more attention to those of vital importance, by out- growing the chrysalis of the butterfly, to enter the realm of a bold thinker. Insofar as women prepare themselves for lives of increased usefulness, broadening in every way, they receive recognition.
There is not encouragement for all women anxious for employment or a liveli- hood to enter the legal profession, for, as with men, it requires peculiar ability, both natural and acquired, to insure success.
Evidences of misfits are too frequently seen in all professions. No woman, there- fore, who has no predilection for law should seek the profession. An eminent writer has said: " It requires two workmen to make a lawyer, the Almighty and the man him- self. The legal mind is the workmanship of God, and no power bencath His can create it. Not possessing it, no one ever became a successful lawyer; with it, no one ever failed if he earnestly tried."
Of the law it is said: " There can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempt from her power." While America's sons sit at the feet of this divine Law, let not the daughters be unmindful of the peculiar position which they occupy. While old cus- toms are crumbling and hoary usages are tottering with decay, woman, emerging from the bondage and solitude of their ruins, offers in evidence her broken chains, mute witnesses that she has both felt the "power " and participates in the "care " of that law; therefore, her homage is due, and her voice needed with that of man to complete the harmony of the world.
In England there is a bird which builds its nest on the ground, but its note is never heard except when on the wing. "The skylark to the first sunbeam gives her voice; and, singing, soars.""
So above woman is an azure waiting to be filled with the melodious rapture of a new day. As long as she was confined by customs and laws in the obscurity of "vested rights," her voice was never heard; but no sooner were the gates of a day of civil frec- dom unlocked than from press, pulpit, rostrum and the bar resounded her voice. If progress is to be real, men and women must go forth hand in hand along its many paths, and together advocate and promulgate principles of equity, while they bear aloft the standard of a universal jurisprudence as perfect in its application as is the law in theory.
WHAT THE WOMEN OF KANSAS ARE DOING TODAY.
By MRS. EUGENE WARE.
Owing to the fact that the state of Kansas had its birth at a time of a great crisis in the life of our nation, and as the women of the state have been an important factor in its growth and development, and as Kansas has always been the battle-ground where the political and ethical questions which have interested the people, have been and are being fought and decided by pub- lic opinion and by legislation; and inasmuch as these conditions have made Kansas women, like the Israel- ites of old, " a peculiar people," it may not seem pre- tentious to follow the footsteps of my sisters over the ground they have trod, reviewing the progress they have made, and discussing the work in which they are today engaged.
When the vast area is considered which we acquired as a state, with its western portion almost a Sahara (although it is gradually being transformed into an irrigated garden ); when we consider that from 1851 to 1865 its eastern boundary was torn by con- tending factions, and overwhelmed by civil war; when we consider that from then until now we have been in turn the victims of grasshoppers, drouths, floods and cyclones, or the prey of strange politics and poli- ticians, who, though with us, are not of us; when we MRS. EUGENE F. WARE. consider that the state has been infested by cranks, "isms" and seisms; by those who thought they had bright ideals and purposes, and by those who had purposes without ideals; when we consider all these obstacles to suc- cess, what wonder is it that we have been called " poor, bleeding Kansas," and regarded with successive pity, admiration and dislike?
In the midst of every calamity the Kansas women have remained undaunted. Shoulder to shoulder, singly and together, they have fought with poverty and mis- fortune; have fought for principle and improvement, and have kept through it all their faith in Kansas. As one corps of workers grew weary or faint-hearted another took up the struggle, working perhaps on an entirely different line, but all to the same pur- pose, to make the state a grand factor in the uplifting of humanity, a power for good which should be felt wherever the name of Kansas might reach on this broad earth- a synonym for principle and right.
In the early days, before the war, there came out from Puritan, liberty-loving New England, colonies of men and women who were inspired to make a home in Kansas, a "home of the brave and the free;" men and women whose one desire was to secure liberty of race, of action, and of opinion.
How much these early pioneers suffered for the sake of this great cause will be known only when the Omnipotent Lover of Freedom makes up the jewels for His
Mrs. Eugene F. Ware isa native of Straftsbury, Vt. She was born June 19, 1849. Her parents were George Huntington and Abigail Galustra. She graduated from Vassar College in 1870, and has traveled through the United States, Canada and Europe. She married Eugene F. Ware (" Ironquill") of Kansas, and is the mother of four children. Mrs. Ware is a woman of rare culture and refinement; devoted to the best interests of society. In religious faith she is a Christian, and a member of the Baptist Church. Her postoffice address is Topeka, Kan.
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crown. The history of those early struggles was most ably written by the wife of our first state governor, Mrs. Charles Robinson. Vivid are the pictures she presents of the midnight ride, the attacks of the Indians, wolves, and of fell famine; the burning of the prairies with perhaps the little shanty itself, and most of the earthly belongings of its occupants. These things, and many greater than these, which brave women experienced without flinching, or yielding their purpose to make Kansas free, show the fortitude and heroic spirit of the pioneer Kansas woman. When "home they brought her warrior dead, she nor swooned nor uttered sigh." Silently, quietly, she took up the duty that came nearest to her, caring for the home, nursing the sick, scrap- ing lint and making bandages, yet in the midst of all cares, at all tintes, she gave the impetus which kept brave men from wavering.
Thus, when Kansas became a state, the strong sentiment which possessed each soul was that of patriotism and freedom. These were the principles which the first Kansas teachers, who were also women, sought to instill into the minds of their pupils.
Is it remarkable that Kansas children, born of such mothers, and instructed by such teachers, should feel that they live for a purpose, and that their mission is to promote in every way possible, the welfare of Kansas and mankind?
After the war the influx of immigration added great mimbers to the already accli- mated New Englander, and brought the hospitable, genial-hearted Southerner, the energetic New Yorker, and the staunch, sturdy people from the North and West. These additions to our population had the effect of making the state thoroughly cosmopol- itan.
We entertain every difference of opinion and belief. We are orthodox and hetero- dox, suffragists and anti-suffragists, temperance and anti-temperance, Christians, agnostics, and theosophists.
The result of all this comingling of forces is to rub down the rough edges of eccen- tricities and pet hobbies, and to teach a wholesome respect for the opinion of other people, and to give a capacity to perceive that they may be right and we ourselves be wrong. This process is now going on.
The church and missionary associations are largely the work of women, and the fact that today there are about three thousand church organizations in Kansas, and over two hundred and fifty thousand church members, shows how zealous and devoted has been the labor in that direction.
The number of moral and social reforms and charitable institutions which these same women have established-non-sectarian in character-proves how little there is of religious bigotry and intolerance, and gives the secret of the marvelous growth of the churches in our progressive state; for the motto under which the women work is: " In things essential, unity; things doubtful, liberty; and in all things, charity."
The temperance workers feel that their labors are nearly ended since the prohibi- tion amendment has been added to the constitution, and prohibition has become a law.
Women who came into all the dangers and privations of a new territory came to help make Kansas not only a free state, but a free woman's state. These were aided by the best talent of the East, who canvassed the territory, that when Kansas should become a state the same privileges should be accorded to women as to men in the laws which were to govern both. Though they were unsuccessful, their efforts have given us the most favorable laws regarding the rights and property of women of any state in the Union, except perhaps Wyoming.
The Woman's Club is a living, breathing, influencing institution in Kansas. Else- where it is a great power, but with us it is an inspiration. There are reasons for this. Kansas is yet young-only thirty-two years old-and, although making rapid strides in many directions, she is as yet almost destitute of the fine art galleries, vast libraries and opportunities for intellectual research which are only acquired by wealth and age. Some years ago when the Chautauqua movement was started it was seized upon by Kansas women as a vital opportunity which should not be lost. They became also
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interested in university extension, and club extension; and clubs sprang up as if by magic in almost every city, town hamlet and school district throughout the state, like the "walls of corn" on its rolling and verdant prairies. We have Mothers' Clubs, Ethical Clubs, The Woman's Press Club, and The Authors' and Artists' Club, which includes both sexes; also the annual Chautauqua Assembly, and last, but not least, the Social Science Club.
Each year since this last society was formed, the circle of its influence has ex- panded; the contact of bright minds, the interchange of ideas, the discussion of literary, artistic and practical questions has had a broadening effect which has gone beyond the boundaries of the state. The members of the society form a state acquaintance which of itself is an education. Today there are on its enrolled list nearly a thousand names which represent the culture and intellect of the women of the state, with tastes so diverse and lines of study so varied that they can say with Browning-
"I have not chanted verse like Homer's-No Nor swept string like Terpander, no; nor carved And painted men like Phidias and his friend.
I am not great as they are, point by point; But I have entered into sympathy with these four,
Running these into one soul,
Who separate, ignored each other's arts; Say, is it nothing that I know them all?"
This year-the year 1893-the Social Science Club took one step onward. Em- boldened by its marked success and accumulation of membership and energy it merged itself into a Social Science Federation, taking in all the local clubs who may wish to join.
In isolated places where there is no club the Social Science Federation is prepar- ing to send out delegates to help organize such a society with a plan of work adapted to the taste and mental requirements of the persons sought. In this way the club woman hopes to bring a mental stimulant to every careworn, tired housewife, who has . nothing to look forward to but the monotonous routine of farm life, and its lonesome cares. To such a woman a reading club, debating circle or literary society of any kind is a godsend. It takes her outside of herself and outside of the economy and care with which her life is filled and leads her into the green pastures of thought and imagination and beside the still waters of hope.
To save the intellect from stagnation, as well as to awaken lofty thoughts and purposes in a dormant mind is a mission only less than that of saving a soul, if per- chance it does not often save the soul.
Outside the club, however, there is an ever-increasing list of women in the state who are making a name and fortune for themselves by original literary effort.
We who follow are still traveling in the same path as did the pioneer Kansas woman, but with this difference, which, better than I can give, is summed up in the words of a noble Kansas man, who is a noble friend of Kansas men and women. I refer to Noble L. Prentis, Esq:
" But the worst is over; gone are border ruffians and drouth and privation; gone danger and difficulty. The sunflowers are growing on the roof of the abandoned dug- out and within the roofless walls of the old sod house. The claim is a farm with broad green, or golden, or russet acres now. The family is sheltered in a stately man- sion now. Having brought Kansas about where she wanted it, the Kansas woman is devoting her attention to culture, to literature, to music, to art. She discusses all the artists from Henry Worrall, a Kansas artist, to Praxiteles; all the musicians from Nevada to the piper who, according to Irish tradition, played before Moses. She be- longs to the Kansas Social Science Club, and traverses the field of human knowledge and investigation, from the hired girl to the most abstruse problems of society and government. In the summer she goes to Long Branch and Saratoga, and is accom-
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panied by her daughter, born in Kansas, a girl who has caught in the meshes of her hair the light of the Kansas sun, and in her eyes the violet shadow that girts the Kan- sas sky at evening. With this beauteous companion she goes about the world, blessed with that calm serenity which characterizes people who have an assured position; who do not want the earth, because they already possess all of it worth having. But if you would disturb this dignified repose; if you would see the frown of Juno, and hear some- thing like the thunder of Jupiter, just intimate to her that Kansas is not the best country in the world, or that it was ever anything else.
" And today in Kansas song and story stands Kansas woman. She has climbed through difficulties to the realms of the stars. Below her lower the dark clouds, and mutter the reverberating thunders of civil strife; below her are the mists of doubt and difficulty; below her are the cold snows and bleak winds of adversity; above her God's free heaven, and before her Kansas as she shall be in the shining, golden tomorrow."
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION .* By MISS ELEANOR L. LORD.
Apropos of such disturbances of the national equanimity as the New Orleans lynch- ing affair or the Behring Sea difficulties occasioned, the subject of international rela- tions becomes one of sudden and special interest to the general public. Of all the multitudinous prob- lems that confront the present generation, the war problem has been, perhaps, the slowest to awaken popular feeling to anything like rebellion against war- fare and its consequences. The speculations of the- orists have been confined in their influence to very narrow circles; and the possibility of the abolition of war, and of the downfall of the standing army, has scarcely dawned upon the world at large. The expe- riences of recent years, however, have here and there afforded opportunities for theories of peaceful arbi- tration to be put to the test of practice; and the time cannot be far distant when public opinion will be called upon to declare the final verdict of success or failure for international arbitration as a working system.
As it is understood today, international arbitra- tion is limited in meaning, implying: (1) The par- ticipation of sovereign states of acknowledged inde- pendence and autonomy; (2) a formal agreement on MISS ELEANOR LOUISA LORD. the part of the litigants to submit their difficulties to the decision of an arbitrating body or individual; (3) the consent of the latter to undertake such decision and to render an award after a thorough and impartial exam- ination of the facts in the case; (4) an agreement on the part of the contracting parties to accept the decision as final and conclusive.
Before passing to the application of pacific principles to international relations in the present century, it may be well to review briefly changes which the last nineteen hundred years have witnessed in the attitude of civilized nations toward war. The Christian religion, as taught by its Founder and His disciples, placed especial empha- sis on the principles of brotherly love, forbearance, forgiveness of enemies, and peace and good will toward all men. All the records of the early church which have come down to us of the first two centuries of its existence would seem to show that the inconsistency of warfare with the tenets of the new religion had made a strong impres- sion upon the sect. There is a saying current among the early fathers that Jesus, in disarming Peter, disarmed all soldiers; and it is a remarkable fact that so large a num- ber of Christians refused to serve in the armies of Rome. It is to be remembered, however, that comparatively few individuals experienced anything like " conversion,"
Miss Eleanor Louisa Lord is a native of Salem, Mass. She was born July 27th, 1866. Her parents were Henry Clay Lord and Katherine Holland Lord. She was educated at the public grammar and high school, of Malden, Mass., at Smith College (Class of '87), Fellow in History Bryn Mawr College, 1888-89. She is a woman of wide culture and commanding. appearance. Her special work has been in the interest of history and economics. Her profession is instructor in history in Smith College, Massachusetts. Miss Lord is a member of the Congregational Church. Her postoffice address is No. 46 Auburn Street, Malden, Mass.
*Published by permission of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
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in the sense of a readjustment of themselves to a new standard of life and thought. When whole armies were converted en masse, as in the days of Clovis, there seems to have been no question of exchanging their arms for the weapons of spiritual warfarc. It was the church, as an organization, that throughout the Middle Ages uttered the sole remonstrance against the practice of private war. When in France the atrocities of feudal warfare became so great as to threaten the very foundations of society, it was the church that came to the rescue with the " Peace of God," and, five years later, the "Truce of God," by which fighting was forbidden from Thursday morning to Monday morning of each week, on all feast days and in Lent, leaving, practically, about eighty days in the year when war was allowable. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries numerous associations were formed, which were the prototypes, on a small scale, of modern peace societies. There was not as yet, however, any conception of international peace. The word international could hardly have had any meaning.
To the Pope, the head of the church, the world looked for judgment in political quarrels. Although the sacredness of their high position would seem to have pecu- liarly fitted them for the position of universal arbiters, the Popes lacked one indis- pensible qualification of an umpire-impartiality.
Mediæval methods of grappling with the war problem ended then in practical failure; and the cause of universal peace was forgotten in the horrors of the Inquisition and the bloodthirsty wars of the Reformation. The conception of Henry IV. of France, of a grand Christian Republic of fifteen states, and his scheme of international arbitration were too far in advance of his time not to have been regarded either as the dreams of a visionary fanatic or as a subtile attempt at the aggrandizement of France. Here it will be observed that the character of the peace movement has changed. It is no longer religious, but political in its aims. Efforts toward recon- ciliation no longer originate with the church, but with monarchs and statesmen. The opening of the nineteenth century brought with it a return to the religious point of view, and to the primitive notion that Christianity is the basis of all international law. Europe entered upon the century worn out with conflict, and in desperate need of peace. Russia, Austria and Prussia accordingly in 1815 formed what is known as the Holy Alliance, agreeing by sacred compact to respect the great principles of right and justice, and to repress violence -- promises which fell far short of fulfilment.
In 1818, at the conference held at Aix-la-chapelle, the four nations that had con- quered Napoleon, joined later by France, formed themselves into the Great Pentarchy, in the interests of permanent peace. The Holy Alliance forms a link between the peace policy of the past and that of the present. The unsatisfactory results of the Grand Alliance dealt the death blow to the theory of the balance of power as an efficient and practicable system. Henceforth all efforts toward amicable adjustment of international affairs are to be based upon other principles. The work of the nine- teenth century in view of this end takes on three forms:
1. The organization and work of peace conferences and associations for the pro- motion of arbitration. 2. Legislation favoring arbitration. 3. The practicable application of the principle.
Peace societies began to be established carly in the century. Their object was to unite all the advocates of peace for concerted action. Conferences have been held from time to time at London, Brussels, Geneva, Paris and elsewhere, for the inter- change of sympathy and the discussion of plans.
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