World's Congress of Representative Women
This decision was reinforced by the very cordial invitation of Mrs. Palmer, who attended the sessions of the National Council as the delegate of the Board of Lady Managers, and as president of the Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary.
[5] In due time, as the plan of the World's Congress Auxiliary developed, the officers of the National Council of Women of the United States entered into correspondence with the Hon.
[5] The main objects to be accomplished in this foreign work were as follows: First, to make clear the distinction between the World's Columbian Exposition, the Board of Lady Managers, the World's Congress Auxiliary, with its Woman's Branch, and the National and International Councils of Women, these bodies being naturally confounded continually, and almost hopelessly, by those who heard of them only through the vague paragraphs of the foreign press; second, to impart a clear understanding of the magnitude of the proposed congress, both as a whole and in its infinite details and subdivisions; third, to show the exact nature of the papers and reports desired from European delegates, and the character of the subjects to be treated; fourth, to stimulate the foreign women to appoint delegates from organizations already existing, and to form new organizations to be represented in like manner; fifth, to encourage individuals to come to Chicago whether connected with organized bodies or not; sixth, to endeavor to reach the general European public through reports, interviews, and articles published in the European press; and, seventh, to combat unceasingly not only the general apathy in regard to a project so remote in time and place, but also the specific objections everywhere encountered, based upon the date chosen for the congress, which did not fall within the foreign vacation period, upon the length, hazard, and cost of the journey, and upon the grossly exaggerated reports of the expense of living in Chicago, and the heat of Chicago summers.
[5] In Berlin, Sewall devoted a month to personal interviews with women prominent in philanthropy and education, and to informal conferences with groups of ladies representing, among other organizations, the following: the Scheppeler-Lette Verein, the Frauenwohl, the Jugendschutz, the Vaterländischer Frauenverein, the Edelweiss Verein, the Victoria Haus, the Victoria Lyceum, the Pestalossi Froebel-Verein, the Künstlerinnen- und Schriftstellerinnen-Verein, the Mädchen Realschule-Verein, and the Volksküchen.
Among the women who were most responsive to her appeals and most influential in spreading a knowledge of the movement among a wider circle were Henriette Schrader-Breymann, Anna Von Helmholtz, Hedwig Heyl, Elisabet Kaselowsky, Lina Morgenstern, Helene Lange, Lucie Crain, Dr. Henriette Hirschfeld-Tiburtius, Frau Direktor Iessen, Claire Schubert-Feder., Ph.D.; Ulrike Henschke, Fräulein von Hobe, and Hanna Bieber-Böhm.
[5] Sewall supplemented her work in Berlin by a visit to Hamburg, where she was granted an extended interview with the Empress Frederick, who showed herself deeply interested in the plan of the proposed congress, and declared herself ready to aid by every means in her power in securing an adequate representation of German women in its deliberations.
In Brussels, Sewall addressed the Ligue belge du droit des femmes ("Belgian Woman's Rights League"), an influential organization, whose leaders were Marie Popelin and Louis Frank.
The responses to the appeals thus made by the secretary were so prompt and so generally sympathetic that it became immediately evident that a wide-spread interest was aroused, and that the success of the congress was assured.
They had come from each state in the Union to staff and run offices, gather and spend resources, pay their workers, sign contracts; all without going into debt as had many of the men's subcommittees.
