At the afternoon session a vote of thanks was given to Senator LaFollette and all the Senators and Representatives who presented the pet.i.tions. Deep appreciation was expressed of the labor of Mrs. Catt in connection with the pet.i.tions and regret that she was not able to be present at the Capitol. This was the last of the hundreds of thousands of pet.i.tions to Congress for the submission of a National Amendment to enfranchise women which began in 1866.[67]
Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton in her treasurer"s report said the past year had been an unusually hard one financially not because of adversity but because of prosperity. Formerly the States had sent their money to the national treasury to be used as the Official Board thought best, but now there were so many campaigns and new lines of work in various States that they wanted to disburse their own money. This was encouraging but hard on the national work. Few were the years between 1899 and 1908 when some legacy was not received, as Miss Anthony never missed an opportunity to urge women to make such bequests. After her death Miss Mary Anthony followed her example but since both had pa.s.sed away little had been done in this direction. The total receipts for 1909 were $21,466, and the general disburs.e.m.e.nts $19,814. With the headquarters in New York more money had been received but more also had to be spent. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont furnished the offices of the Press Committee, paid their rent, the salaries of three workers and all other expenses connected with it. Mrs. William M. Ivins of New York City and Mrs. Mary Ely Parsons of Rye, N. Y., furnished Dr.
Shaw"s office.
In closing Mrs. Upton said that the duties of the headquarters and of the treasurer"s office had been so closely connected that up to this time it had been difficult to separate them. In fact from the time she was elected to date she had always done some work properly belonging to headquarters. From the first a clerk was supplied to her and she was so situated that she could do this and was more than willing to.
She had edited twelve reports of annual conventions and was editor and manager of _Progress_ for seven years. She told how letters and requests continued to come to her after the headquarters went to New York and she was obliged to employ another clerk, whose salary she herself paid. In closing she said: "Since 1893 your treasurer has received and disbursed more than $275,000 and she wishes the treasurer for the coming year could have that full amount for the next twelve months" work." The convention accepted the report with a rising vote of thanks for her many years of continuous service.
The general subscriptions at the convention, including those for the South Dakota campaign, were $4,363. Mrs. Belmont continued her pledge of $600 a month. The a.s.sociation had various funds to draw from, which were supplied by contributions. It was voted to appropriate $150 a month for six and a half months" work in Oklahoma if the amendment was to go to the voters in November.
Memorial services were held on the morning of April 15 for two distinguished members of the a.s.sociation, Henry B. Blackwell, who had died Sept. 7, 1909, and William Lloyd Garrison, five days later. On the program was an extract from a speech made by Mr. Blackwell at a national Woman"s Rights Convention in Cleveland, O., in 1853: "The interests of the s.e.xes are inseparably connected and in the elevation of the one lies the salvation of the other. Therefore, I claim a part in this last and grandest movement of the ages, for whatever concerns woman concerns the race." Affectionate and beautiful tributes to Mr.
Blackwell"s nearly fifty years" devotion to the cause of woman suffrage were paid by those who had known him long and intimately, which are partially quoted here.
Mrs. f.a.n.n.y Garrison Villard: I have ever regarded Mr. Blackwell as a many-sided reformer, one whose most distinguished claim to remembrance consists in the fact that no other man has devoted so much of his life to the task of securing the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. Only those who have read the _Woman"s Journal_ regularly and depended on it for an accurate record of the slow but steady march of progress of this great movement can fully realize the enormous amount of editorial work contributed to it by him during the past forty years. The combination of superior intellectual powers with tenderest sympathies formed a rare equipment for success in his chosen field of usefulness. In truth his advocacy of the woman"s cause was marked by such zeal and enthusiasm that one not knowing the initials "H. B. B." stood for a man might quite naturally have believed that only a woman could own them.
Fortunately he was possessed of the sunniest possible temperament and blessed with an unusual sense of humor which enabled him to see things in their true proportions and make light of obstacles in his path. The many and varied tributes that have been paid to his memory all dwell upon his intense love of justice which led him to wage war against oppression wherever he found it.... It was my good fortune to be present at the celebration of Mr.
Blackwell"s eightieth birthday in Faneuil Hall in Boston. With great clarity of vision he defined the duty of the hour and said: "But we can not afford to be a mutual admiration society, there is still work to do." ... With what patience, fort.i.tude and true courage he and Lucy Stone, his wife, played their part in the face of ridicule and opprobrium is now a matter of history. Women who today live a freer life because of their labors and those of their coadjutors must offer to their memory the highest meed of praise.
Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch: Lives consecrated to great reforms, particularly to the advancement of a reform to emanc.i.p.ate women, teach us that the age of chivalry is not past.
These great men whom we honor to-day were not, like the knights of old, inspired by the love of some one woman whom they desired to possess, but they strove for justice for those they loved best and for us too, who were their friends, and for millions of women they never knew. Their far-reaching chivalry was one of the most important elements in the characters of Mr. Blackwell and Mr.
Garrison. Both of them were unusually fortunate in the women who were their nearest and dearest. Mr. Blackwell"s sister Elizabeth was the first woman physician in the United States; his sister-in-law, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained minister; his wife, Lucy Stone, one of the sweetest and truest of the pioneer suffrage lecturers.
Mr. Garrison was not old enough to be related to so many pioneers, except through his ill.u.s.trious father, but his wife"s devotion to the suffrage work, his sister"s unfaltering activity and his a.s.sociation from boyhood with Boston"s brilliant coterie of renowned women, might well have influenced him to have a higher regard and deeper respect for all their s.e.x.... Mr.
Blackwell and Mr. Garrison, in their beautiful family lives, are particularly ill.u.s.trious examples that woman suffrage will not break up the home. Many long years did these pairs of married friends work together for our cause....
To-day we sorrow for the loss of these men but not without hope, for there are other men coming forward to take up the work they have dropped. We women who are here to-day do not represent merely ourselves and the tens of thousands of other suffrage women but we are backed by the sympathy, the active encouragement and the money of our husbands, our brothers, our fathers, and many of us have chivalrous sons. More even than sympathy they now give, as some are giving themselves for service. One of Mr.
Blackwell"s last letters to me related to securing a large membership among men, and our Men"s Suffrage Leagues, now springing up in all large cities, might well name themselves for him.... Go forward, men, with the spirit of Blackwell and Garrison!
Mrs. McCulloch paid a beautiful tribute to the human side of Mr.
Blackwell"s character, his love of nature and his companionship with children.
Miss Jane Campbell: I need not enter into the details of the life, public or private, of Mr. Blackwell. They are written in letters of gold in the annals of the suffrage movement from the moment when in the beautiful, unselfish ardor of youth, with his wife, the silver-tongued Lucy Stone, he entered upon a career of patient, unflagging devotion to the cause of woman"s rights....
It evinced a high and n.o.ble spirit, a great courage, for any man to espouse an almost universally ridiculed cause, as did Mr.
Blackwell; possibly greater courage than even a woman, conservative and timid if not by nature yet made so by education, showed when she emerged from her awed subjection and ventured to demand her equal share of privileges as well as of disabilities.
The woman had the burning sense of injustice to arouse her, the indignation caused by her calm relegation to the position of an inferior to inspire her with courage to fight for freedom, but a man, a man like Mr. Blackwell, had no such bitter sense of personal wrong to impel him. He entered the contest not for himself, for he had no wrongs to redress, but his great soul saw that woman had and he devoted life, means, energy, talents to redress them. It is a rarely high, unselfish record of a n.o.ble life that he has left for the admiration and example of other men.... He was one of the most eloquent, forceful and logical speakers we have ever had on our platform, with his fine, resounding voice giving clear expression to his logical thinking, and he was a ready and forceful writer....
Miss Anne Fitzhugh Miller: It was always a joy to meet Mr.
Blackwell for there was never any picking up of broken threads of our spinning or knitting or weaving of good comradeship, which at once continued as if no absence had intervened. I felt at home with him always, he was a man after my own heart, direct, decided, accurate, devoted to high ideals, and yet he possessed an elasticity of nature which made him the most comfortable of comrades. His sense of humor and his love of fun made the best of good times for those who were fortunate enough to share his merry moods.... It was always a delight to hear him speak. The sound of his voice rested and refreshed and the soundness of his thought inspired confidence and admiration. His half-century of continuous and absolute devotion to the cause of woman suffrage gives Mr. Blackwell a unique position in history. All women owe him a debt of grat.i.tude which they can best pay by renewed devotion to the cause to which he dedicated his life. In the truest and broadest sense he was and should be remembered as a "Brother of Women."
Dr. Shaw added her own fine appreciation of the two men and speaking from almost a lifetime of acquaintance with Mr. Garrison gave a glowing eulogy of his n.o.ble character, lofty convictions and fearless courage, a worthy son of a great father. Among other prominent friends of woman suffrage who had pa.s.sed away during the year, recorded in the memorial resolutions, were Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court; Dr. Borden P. Bowne, head of the department of philosophy and dean of the graduate school in Boston University; Judge Charles B. Waite and Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson of Chicago; Charles Sprague Smith, director of Cooper Inst.i.tute, New York, and many devoted workers in the various States.
At one interesting evening session Mrs. Kate Trimble Woolsey (Ky.) spoke on Republics versus Women, the t.i.tle of her book; Mrs. Meta L.
Stern on Woman Suffrage from a Socialist"s Point of View; Miss Alice Paul on The English Situation. Mrs. Catt"s subject was Caught in a Snare and the convention voted to have it printed for circulation. As Miss Alice Stone Blackwell was ill at home, missing the annual convention for the first time, the readers of the _Woman"s Journal_ were deprived of her usual comprehensive reports and abstracts of the speeches where the ma.n.u.script was not available. That of Miss Paul was published in full. She had recently returned from London, where she had been a member of Mrs. Pankhurst"s organization, had been sent to prison, had gone on a "hunger strike" and been forcibly fed, and she felt the situation keenly. A part of her speech was as follows:
As we gather here as suffragists, our hearts naturally go out to those women at the storm-center of our movement--to those women in Great Britain who are having a struggle such as women have never had in any other land. The violent criticism, the suppression and distortion of facts from which they have suffered at the hands of the politically-inspired press of their own country have made it difficult for one on this side to gain any true conception of their movement....
The essence of the campaign of the suffragettes is opposition to the Government. The country seems willing that the vote be extended to women. This last Parliament showed its willingness by pa.s.sing their franchise bill through its second reading by a three-to-one majority, but the Government, that little group which controls legislation, would not let it become law. It is not a war of women against men, for the men are helping loyally, but a war of men and women together against the politicians at the head, who because of their own political interests seem afraid to enfranchise women. The suffragettes have gone with pet.i.tions to the head of the Government, as our representatives will go in a few days to the authorities in Washington. Here they will be received with courtesy, but Mr. Asquith has never since he has been Prime Minister received a deputation of women on this question of their suffrage. Each time he curtly refuses to see them and orders the police to drive them away or arrest them.
Thirteen times the deputations of one society alone have been arrested....
The Earl of Lytton said the other day that more violence had been done by the men during the three weeks of the recent election than by the women during their entire agitation. Such action on the part of voters is wrong for they have a const.i.tutional way, through the ballot, of redressing their grievances, but on the part of a disfranchised cla.s.s, after half a century"s trial has proved all their methods to be of no avail, a protest such as these women have made seems entirely right. We are so close at hand that perhaps we hardly realize the full significance of their movement. The greatest drama that is being enacted in the world today, it seems to me, is the battle of the British women.
When historians can look back from the perspective of a century or two I think they will say that this talk of dreadnaughts and budgets and House of Lords was after all of but little moment and that the great event of world significance in Great Britain early in the century was the magnificent struggle for political freedom on the part of her women.
The comprehensive report of the corresponding secretary, Professor Potter, filled ten pages of the printed Minutes and was a complete summary of the year"s work and that which should be done. Names were given of about forty a.s.sociations which had pa.s.sed resolutions for woman suffrage during the year, preceded usually by discussion. These included Federations of Labor, Granges, Temperance Societies, Federations of Women"s Clubs, religious bodies and labor organizations. Among the last were the International Typographical Union, International Chair Workers, Amalgamated a.s.sociation of Street and Electric Railway Employees, American Federation of Labor, National Women"s Trade Union League and many others. She called attention to the fact that in many instances the endors.e.m.e.nt was unanimous and that the labor resolutions were stronger than ever before, using the phrase "our intention to secure woman suffrage." The Pennsylvania Federation said: "In selecting candidates for political office we will endeavor to secure men who are committed to a belief in the right of women to vote."
Professor Potter emphasized the need of research experts to bring the statistics up to date, as it was now impossible to answer the requests for information from the best type of those asking it, university graduates working for higher degrees, men and women writing articles, books, plays, etc. She reported the beginning of a card catalogue of subjects and the progress made toward carrying out the instructions of the Seattle convention that the national headquarters undertake a handbook of Federal and State Laws for Women and a bibliography. She described the character of the thousands of letters sent out, covering work for prize essays, poster campaigns, ma.s.s meetings, "settlement"
work, appointments of women, newspaper and magazine publicity and especially organization along political lines. As she had been asked to act as field lecturer as well as corresponding secretary she reported fifty-four lectures given, not only at State suffrage conventions but before men"s leagues, press clubs, labor meetings, churches, universities, etc.
The convention showed by a rising vote its full appreciation of this report, which was the first and last given by Professor Potter as corresponding secretary. Differences in regard to administration had arisen which proved to be irreconcilable and she had declined to stand for re-election. The Official Board was divided in opinion and this led to several changes in its personnel. Dr. Shaw was re-elected president; Mrs. Avery, first vice-president; Mrs. Stewart, second vice-president; Mrs. Upton, treasurer; Miss Clay and Miss Blackwell, first and second auditors. Mrs. Florence Kelley declined re-nomination as second vice-president and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch was elected. Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett (Ma.s.s.) was chosen for corresponding secretary. Later in the convention Mrs. Avery and Mrs. Upton gave in their resignations, which the delegates refused to accept and then both announced that their offices would be vacant in one month. Mrs.
Upton had been treasurer of the a.s.sociation since 1893 and the delegates were most reluctant to let her go. By action of the Executive Committee Mrs. McCulloch was advanced to the office of first vice-president; Miss Kate M. Gordon (La.) was made second vice-president and Miss Jessie Ashley (N. Y.), treasurer.
The National College Equal Suffrage League held business sessions Sat.u.r.day forenoon and afternoon with its president, Dr. M. Carey Thomas of Bryn Mawr presiding, and a luncheon was given for its delegates. Miss Caroline Lexow made the annual report. At the evening meeting of the convention Mrs. Alice Duer Miller (N. Y.), representing the Equal Franchise Society, of which Mrs. Clarence Mackay was president, spoke on The Sisterhood of Women, saying in part: "We have plenty of work to do but it is not that, it is not the organization, the growth of membership and the spread of theories that make me confident of success. It is the extraordinary spirit that animates the women who are working for suffrage, the sense of comradeship and community among them, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, old and young, mothers and daughters. We have been taught to admire the 18th century because it did so much to dissolve cla.s.s distinctions. It broke down some of the barriers, not between man and woman, but between groups of men, for within groups men have always had this spirit of comradeship, and oh, how they have valued it! They did not get it in domestic relations, however happy; or in friendships, however warm. They got it, or rather they found a field in which to exercise it, in the impersonal activities of their lives, in their crusades, guilds, colleges, labor unions and clubs. But between women the barriers have been of a more serious type. They have been segregated not only cla.s.s by cla.s.s but individual by individual and house by house. Now these barriers too are dissolving. Women are finding an expression for their sense of comradeship, for their impersonal loyalty to their own s.e.x; they are waking up to the fact that a sense of equality is more thrilling to those who have the right stuff in them than any sense of superiority could ever have been."
Miss Harriet E. Grim of Wisconsin University described The Call of the New Age to College Women. Miss Juliet Stuart Poyntz, president of Barnard chapter of the College League, discussed Education and Social Progress. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Gilmer, "Dorothy Dix," in an address on The Real Reason why Women cannot Vote, gave a delightful imitation of the voice and words of a wise old negro, "Mirandy," from which the following is quoted:
Ya.s.sum, dat"s de trouble wid women down to dis very day. Dey ain"t got no backbone. Of a rib dey was made an" a rib dey has stayed an" n.o.body ain"t got no right to expect nothin" else from "em. Hit"s becaze woman was made out of man"s rib--an" from de way she acts. .h.i.t looks lak she was made out of a floatin" rib at dat--an" man was left wid all his backbone, dat he has got de comeuppance over woman. Dat"s de reason we women sets down an"
cries when we ought to git up an" heave brickbats. What"s de reason dat we women can"t vote, an" ain"t got no say-so "bout makin" de laws dat bosses us? Ain"t we got de right on our side?
Ya.s.sir, but we"se got no backbone in us to just retch out an"
grab dat ballot.
Dere ain"t n.o.body "sputing dat we"se got to sc.r.a.pe up de money to pay de tax collector, even if we does have to get down into a skirt pocket for hit insted of pants" pocket, an" our belongin"
to de angel sect ain"t gwine to keep us out of jail if we gits in a fight wid anodder lady or we swipes a ruffled petticote off de clothesline next do". Fudermo", when de meat trust puts up de price of po"k chops, hits de woman dat has to squeeze de eagle on de dollar ontel hit holler a little louder an" pare de potato peelin"s a little thinner. An" dat makes us women jest a-achin"
to have a finger in dat government pie an" see if we can"t put a little mo" sweetnin" in hit, an" make hit a little lighter so dat hit won"t get so heavy an" ondigestible on de stomachs of dem what ain"t millionaires.
Ya.s.sir, we"se jest a-honin" for de franchise an" we might have had hit any time dese last forty years ef we"d had enough backbone to riz up an" fit one good fight for hit, but instead of dat we set around a-holdin" our hands an" all we"se done is to say in a meek voice: "Please, sir, I don"t lak to trouble you but ef you"d kindly pa.s.s me de ballot hit sho"ly would be agreeable to me." An" instead of givin" hit to us, men has kinder winked one eye at de odder an" said: "Lawd, she don"t want hit or else she"s make a row about hit. Dat"s de way we men did. We didn"t go after de right to vote wid our pink tea manners on."
Ya.s.sir, dat"s de true word, an" you listen to me--de day dat women s.p.u.n.ks up an" rolls up dere sleeves an" says to dere husband dat dey ain"t a-gwine to do no" mo" cookin" in his house, nor darnin" of socks, nor patchin" of britches untel dere is some female votin", why dat day de ballot will be fetched home to women on a silver platter. All dat stands between women an"
suffrage is de lack of a spinal colum.
An able address was given by Henry Wilbur, as representative of the Friends" Equal Rights a.s.sociation. Max Eastman, a.s.sistant professor in Columbia University, representing the New York Men"s League for Woman Suffrage, of which he was secretary, taking the broad subject Democracy and Women, said in the course of his speech:
The democratic hypothesis is that a State is good not when it conforms to some abstract eternal ideal of what a State ought to be, as the Greeks thought, but when it conforms to the interests of particular concrete individuals, namely, its citizens, all of them that are in mental and moral health; and that the way to find out their interests is not to sit on a throne or a bench and think about it but to go and ask them.... Barring this question of democracy, I think the political arguments for woman suffrage are not the main ones. The great thing to my mind is not that women will improve politics but that politics will develop women.
The political act, the nature it demands and the recognition it attracts, will alter the character and status of women in society to the benefit of themselves, their husbands, their children and their homes. Upon this ground we can stand and declare that it is of high and immediate importance to all humanity not only that we give those women the vote who want it but that we rouse those who do not know enough to want it to a better appreciation of the great age in which they have the good fortune to live. Whatever else we may say for the industrial era we can say this, that it has made possible and actual the physical, social, moral and intellectual emanc.i.p.ation of women....
The other day I had a letter from a man who said he wouldn"t join my society because he feared I was "striking a blow at the family, which is the cornerstone of society." Well, I am not much of an authority on matrimony but that sort of language sounds to me like a hysterical outcry from a person whose family is already tottering. It is at least certain that a great many of these cornerstones of society are tottering, and why? Because there dwell in them triviality and vacuity, which prepare the way of the devil. Who can think that intellectual divergence, disagreement upon great public questions, would disrupt a family worth holding together? On the contrary, nothing save a community of great interests--whether in agreement or disagreement--can revive a fading romance. A high and equal comradeship is the one thing that can save those families which are the tottering cornerstones of society. A greater service of the developed woman to the State, however, will be her service in motherhood.... And yet to hear the sacredness of motherhood advanced as a reason why women should not become public-spirited and effectual, you would think this nation had no greater hope than to rear in innocence a generation of grown-up babies. Keep your mothers in a state of invalid remoteness from life and who shall arm the young with intelligent virtue? To educate a child is to lead him out into the world of experience. It is not to bring him in virgin innocence to the front door and say, "Now run on and be a good child!" A million lives wrecked at the very off-go can bear witness to the failure of this method.
Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch (N. Y.) presided at a symposium on Open Air Meetings, which were then being much discussed, and they were advocated by Miss Ray Costello of England; Mrs. Katherine Dexter McCormick (Ma.s.s.), Mrs. Susan W. Fitzgerald (Ma.s.s.) and Mrs. Helen LaReine Baker (Wash.). Mrs. Blatch announced a practical demonstration that afternoon at the corner of Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Mrs. Catt presided over a conference on Political District Organization as demonstrated in New York City. An afternoon meeting was devoted to an Industrial Program arranged by Mrs. Myra Strawn Hartshorne of Chicago. Conditions affecting Women as Workers and as Wives and Mothers of Workers were graphically described by Miss Rose Schneiderman (N. Y.), president of the Cap Makers" Union. The Consequences to Motherhood and Womanhood, as demonstrated by the White Slave Traffic, were strikingly pictured by Mrs. Raymond Robins (Ills.), president of the National Women"s Trade Union League. A private conference, Mrs. Mary Hutcheson Page (Ma.s.s.) presiding, discussed the necessity for defeating anti-suffrage candidates for Congress and Legislatures. Mrs. Florence Kelley, executive secretary of the National Consumers" League, brought greetings from the Southern Conference on Woman and Child Labor, which she had just attended, with a special one from Miss Jean Gordon (La.), and made a striking address. Dr. Anna Mercy, president of the first suffrage club on the East Side of New York, gave practical experiences. Miss Nettie A.
Podell and Miss Bertha Ryshpan, representing the Political Equality League, of which Mrs. Belmont was president, told of its gratifying experiments with Political Settlements in New York City. The session closed with a stirring address by Charles Edward Russell on Self-Defense or the Demand for Political Action.
Mrs. Pauline Steinem (Ohio) reported the usual active and efficient work of her Committee on Education, urging among other valuable methods the organization of Mothers" and Parents" Clubs in connection with all public schools. Mrs. McCulloch gave her report as Legal Adviser, which combined sound sense with sparkling humor. She showed how much money had been lost to the a.s.sociation because those who intended to leave bequests to it delayed making their wills. She urged the women to study the statutes of their States relating to women and said that, while she had been glad to contribute her services as legal adviser and would not accept a salary, the a.s.sociation should employ a competent lawyer who could stay at the national headquarters and give her entire time to compiling the laws for women and giving legal information. The convention Minutes say: "A rising vote of thanks was given to Mrs. McCulloch for her magnificent work as legal adviser for many years." Miss Gordon presented the plan for raising the Susan B.
Anthony Memorial Fund; Mrs. Alice C. Dewey (N. Y.), the report on Bibliography; Dr. Mary D. Hussey (N. J.), on Enrollment. Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser read the report of Mrs. Ida Husted Harper, chairman of the National Press Committee, which said in part:
My strong belief that New York offered the greatest and most promising field in the world for suffrage press work has been abundantly sustained. The national press bureau was opened about the middle of September, soon after the national headquarters were moved to this city, with a private reception to the representatives of every newspaper in the city, to whom its objects and hopes were stated. From that day the most of the men and women reporters have been its unfailing friends. A number of the women have not missed coming a single day and most of them are ardent suffragists and anxious to help the cause in every possible way. Back of reporters have been the interest and support of city and managing editors. In the nearly seven months there have not been half-a-dozen really opposing editorials and there have been many of a favorable and helpful character. Every day sixteen papers of New York City have been examined by some member of the bureau and the clippings carefully filed. These, during the past five months, have comprised over 3,000 articles on woman suffrage, ranging in length from a paragraph to a page.
During these five months there have been received from one news service bureau 10,800 clippings on woman suffrage from papers outside of New York City. Included in these are 2,311 editorials.
All of these were read, sorted and filed. (See exhibit.) The number of magazine articles on woman suffrage as noted in _Progress_ during this period has been about one hundred. It is doubtful if there was such a record in all the preceding ten years combined.
In years past there has been great rejoicing when one of the large syndicates would accept an article on woman suffrage. From the time the press bureau was established in New York, practically every one of any consequence in the United States has urgently requested articles and used all that could be furnished. From one to a dozen articles each, with a great many photographs, have been sent to the a.s.sociated Press, United Press, Laffan Bureau and National News Syndicate of New York; Western Newspaper Union, Chicago; Newspaper Enterprise a.s.sociation, Cleveland; North-American Press Syndicate, Grand Rapids; over 100 short items to the American Press a.s.sociation.
There has been scarcely a limit to the requests for suffrage matter from influential papers in all parts of the country....
Once a month I have supplied an article on the work in the United States for _Jus Suffragii_, the international paper published in Rotterdam.... I have also edited _Progress_....