Democratic Ideals (Brown)/Chapter 3
CHAPTER III
THE WOMAN'S TRIBUNE
We have already spoken of the founding* of the Woman's Tribune. This fine and interesting paper Mrs. Colby carried on for twenty-five years wholly by her own efforts. It took the prize at the Paris Exposition in 1900 for its neatness and workman-like appearance, and it filled an important place in the history of the cause, being for a time the recognized organ of the National Woman's Suffrage Association of which Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was then president.
In 1888 at the time of the great International Council of Women in Washington, Mrs. Colby published the Woman's Tribune daily during the week of the council, and continued it through the Woman's Suffrage Convention the following week. It is probably the first instance of a daily woman's paper being published by a woman. She managed it with great enterprise and skill, giving every day a full account of the proceedings of the council, and reproducing all the speeches. This was greatly appreciated by all. It was really a wonderful achievement, and marked a great epoch in the development of the suffrage movement.
The International Council was the first attempt to convene an international body of women, and opened the way to a much larger conception of the whole suffrage movement. The effect was, that from being the effort of the women of the United States to secure the ballot for themselves, it became a great body of women working for the complete emancipation of their sex everywhere. From being merely national in scope the cause became world-wide.
After her notable success in publishing the daily Tribune in Washington during the council in 1888, Mrs. Colby removed her office to that city and making her headquarters there published the paper with growing interest until 1904 when she removed it to Portland, Oregon, in order to aid more effectually the woman's suffrage campaign which was being carried on in that state.
The writer recalls a campaign in Wisconsin in 1886 in which Miss Anthony, accompanied by Mrs. Colby, with the help of Rev. Olympia Brown, president of the Wisconsin State Suffrage Association, held a three days' convention in each of the congressional districts of the state. Mrs. Colby was a prominent speaker in all the meetings. The immediate purpose was the extension of the circulation of the Woman's Tribune.
Among the many meetings held in Wisconsin was a very successful one at Eau
TJie Woman's Tribune
Claire. The Eau Claire Leader gave a somewhat humorous account of the evening session at the close of the three days of meeting. The Leader says: "After so many speeches, and after such eloquent appeals during the last few days any man who would have the hardihood to hold out against the liberal use of the ballot for women, must be a hard wretch, indeed. Last night the enthusiasm knew no bounds. Every one around where the leader sat was joining the association right and left. The subscription list of the Tribune, the woman's suffrage paper, was being filled rapidly, and Rev. Olympia Brown did a lively stroke of business in that direction. Mrs. Colby spoke first, and spoke well. She has a bright appearance and carries her audience with her. But of course, Susan B. Anthony is the great power after all. She is a trifle slow in speech, but everything is clear cut, and so well defined that what is said is said well, and in such a manner as to rivet it in the attention of her hearers."
Miss Anthony then advocated the Tribune with all her great earnestness, expressing the utmost appreciation of its merits and urging its acceptance. She had done the same in Kansas and other western states, everywhere urging subscriptions with the statement that it was the "organ of the National Association." Thus the Woman's
The Woman's Tribune
Tribune became recognized throughout the West as the organ of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, and to many women the only source of information and sole authority on the subject of Woman's Suffrage. Naturally it was a terrible blow to the paper, and an inexpressible disappointment to Mrs. Colby and many others, when, on the occasion of the union of the National Association with the American in 1889 the Woman's Journal was adopted as the suffrage organ to the .exclusion of the Tribune.
Thus deprived of the backing of a great national society, and of Miss Anthony's personal aid, the work of maintaining the paper was greatly increased. Although it continued to be published some twenty years more, yet it was done by the most strenuous exertion and immense personal sacrifice.
Those who have never had a part in publishing a reform paper cannot understand the difficulties of the situation. First, the circulation of the best reform papers will necessarily be small as compared with that of the popular newspapers; next, the advertising, which is almost entirely dependent on the circulation, must be small or wholly wanting.
For a time Mrs. Colby was able to retain her old subscribers, but without the opportunity to present the paper at the great national meetings her means of increasing the
The Woman's Tribune
subscription list was greatly lessened, and little by little some of the old subscribers were lost although many of them continued to be loyal to Mrs. Colby, not only during the life of the paper but afterwards in all her work.
Amid all these discouragements and without aid and at a constant financial loss, Mrs. Colby carried on her paper in a manner that was absolutely heroic. Unable to pay for printing she learned to set type, and often was at once editor and compositor, sometimes even running the press. For a time she had her own little outfit in the basement of her house in Washington, where she did everything from writing the editorials to folding and mailing with her own hands. Often, when subscriptions were slow in coming, she was obliged to wait for days in order to get the money to pay the expense of mailing, but amid all she was courageous and optimistic, always expecting some favorable turn of fortune. It was this optimism which led her to remove her paper to Portland, Oregon, contrary to the advice of all her friends. She hoped by going there to be aided and assisted in many ways and believed that while helping in the campaign she would be able to present the Tribune and thus procure new subscribers, but, on the contrary, in Oregon she met with unexpected opposition and serious discour 36
The Woman s Tribune
agement which, at last, compelled her to publication in 1909.
The Tribune, unlike other organs of a party or cause, was filled with varied information on many subjects. Thus while giving the facts and the reports concerning the subject of Woman's Suffrage, and telling what women were doing in many directions, the paper also contained articles representing the latest ideas in philosophy, religion and other subjects. The editor was always on the alert for everything new, and ever ready "to prove all things and hold fast the good."
Her paper was ever open to new suggestions and hospitable to every earnest thought. For instance, in the issue of July 25, 1903, which is before me as I write, I find beside editorials, interesting quotations from her exchanges, a full account of the Federal Suffrage Association, with a blank for signers to the suffrage petition, an account of Lady Somerset's address to the World's W. C. T. U. convention, and Mrs. Lockwood's attendance at the meeting of the Press Club, also an article by Frances Power Cobbe on the "Expediency of Woman's Suffrage," a sketch of the Klondike Gold Mines as represented by Mr. Fitzgerald, and an article by the editor re-printed from the "East and West," Bombay, India, on "The Hand and the Brain," besides choice bits of verse.
The Woman's Tribune
In another issue, May 30th, 1903, we find beside suffrage notices and other matters pertaining to the cause, a description of a suffrage tour which she made in Wisconsin for the State Suffrage Association in company with its president. Her account of various places visited is most interesting. Among others, in reporting her visit to the city of Wausau she gives an account of the Philosopher's Print Shop. The following quotation is given since many are unacquainted with the institution:
"A very unique institution of Wausau is the Philosopher's Print Shop, at the Sign of the Pine Tree. The Philosopher is a little monthly magazine after the order of the better known Philistine, but with a character and charm of its own. Mr. Ellis is the literary genius of the picturesque log cabin; Mr. Van Vechten has the important office of financial backer, and Mrs. Van Vechten presides over the book business which is now growing into notice all over the United States. A dozen or more well-known classics have been reproduced in limited editions in as elegant shape as best print and paper, binding and illumination can provide. Every sheet is placed on the press by Mrs. Van Vechten and the exquisite illumination is also her work. A book just being issued is Robert Browning's poem, "Saul." The frontispiece and border were designed by Mr. Robert Anning Bell of England. The picture illustrates the climax of the poem when David cries:
'O Saul it shall be
A Face like my face that receives thee; a
Man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever; a
Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to
thee! See the Christ stand!'"
The same paper contains also notice of the appointment of a woman as assistant attorney general for the Philippine Islands, mention of early suffragists in Wisconsin who attempted to vote in order to test the law, removal of suffrage headquarters to Warren, Ohio, with Harriet Hauser as secretary, National Council of Mothers, High Schools, Hindu ideals of woman, and many other matters of general interest which at that time were not usually reported in the public prints.
Undoubtedly this very versatility and variety unfitted the Tribune to be an organ of the National-American Association while it made it a most interesting and profitable family paper, in which Woman's Suffrage was commended to many by the very fact that it was made interesting by being associated with other subjects. Mrs. Colby had a good taste for poetry and not the least of the attractions of the Tribune were the charming selections of choice and often rare poems which appeared in every issue.
It is a world of pities that she could not have concentrated her energies upon the Tribune. With her versatility and unusual editorial ability it might have taken the highest rank, and today have been an authority on the whole subject of constitutional liberty. It would have been a great achievement, but circumstances and the want of means compelled her to cease publication at the end of twenty-five years.
Complete files of the Tribune may be found in the Congressional Library, and with the exception of the year 1902 in the New York City Library. Miss Lucy Anthony, also, has a copy of the bound files formerly belonging to Susan B. Anthony.