APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XVII.
HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION.
During the early years of the movement for woman suffrage the headquarters were in the home of Miss Susan B. Anthony, in Rochester, N. Y. In 1890 her strong desire to have a center for work and social features in Washington was fulfilled by the National Association's renting two large rooms in the club house of Wimodaughsis, a newly formed stock company of women for having classes and lectures on art, science, literature and domestic and political economy, with Dr. Anna Howard Shaw president. It did not prove to be permanent, however, and in two years the association had to give up the rooms and the work went back to Rochester, where much of it had continued to be done.
In October, 1895, when Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt became chairman of the Organization Committee, she opened headquarters in one room of her husband's offices in the World Building, New York City. At the same time Miss Anthony, with a gift of $1,000 from Mrs. Louisa Southworth of Cleveland, had Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery, national corresponding secretary, open headquarters in Philadelphia, with Miss Nicolas Shaw as secretary. Both acts were endorsed by the Business Committee of the association. At the next convention Mrs. Avery recommended that the Philadelphia headquarters be removed to those of New York. This was done April 1, 1897; two large rooms were rented in the World Building and all the work of the association except the treasurer's and the convention business was transacted here. For six years the national headquarters, in charge of Mrs. Catt, remained in New York. In May, 1903, they were removed to Warren, Ohio, near Cleveland, and Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, national treasurer, took charge of them, with Miss Elizabeth J. Hauser, executive secretary. Here they were beautifully housed, first in the parlors of an old mansion and later on the ground floor of the county court house where formerly was the public library. In 1909, partly through the contribution of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont, they were returned to New York City and with the New York State Association occupied the entire seventeenth floor of a large, new office building, 505 Fifth Avenue, corner of 42nd Street. When Mrs. Catt again became president the work of the association had outgrown even these commodious headquarters and in January, 1916, the fourteenth floor, with much more space, was taken in an office building at 171 Madison Avenue, corner of 33rd Street. In March, 1917, the Leslie Commission opened its Bureau of Suffrage Education in this building and the two organizations occupied two floors with a staff of fifty persons. On May 1, 1920, their work was concentrated on one floor, as the great task of securing complete, universal suffrage for the women of the United States was almost finished.
Branch Headquarters: In January, 1914, branch headquarters were opened in the Munsey Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington for the work of the association's Congressional Committee. They continued there until the effort to obtain a Federal Amendment became of such magnitude as to require a great deal more room and in December, 1916, a large house was taken at 1626 Rhode Island Avenue, just off of Scott Circle [see page 632]. This was occupied by the committee, national officers, the lobbyists and other workers until July, 1919, when the amendment had been submitted by Congress.
The first headquarters in a business building in 1895 had been rented for $15 a month; the last year's rent for the headquarters in New York and Washington was $17,500.
BEQUEST OF MRS. FRANK LESLIE.
Mrs. Frank Leslie, long at the head of the Leslie publications in New York City, died Sept. 18, 1914, leaving a will which made the following provisions:
All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, whatsoever and wheresoever situate, whereof I may be seized or possessed, or to which I may be in any manner entitled at the time of my death, including the amount of any legacies hereinbefore given which may for any reason lapse or fail, I do give, devise and bequeath unto my friend, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt of the city of New York. It is my expectation and wish that she turn all of my said residuary estate into cash, and apply the whole thereof as she shall think most advisable to the furtherance of the cause of Women's Suffrage, to which she has so worthily devoted so many years of her life, and that she shall make suitable provision, so that in case of her death any balance thereof remaining unexpended may be applied and expended in the same way; but this expression of my wish and expectation is not to be taken as creating any trust or as limiting or affecting the character of the gift to her, which I intend to be absolute and unrestricted.
Mrs. Leslie had previously made two wills of a similar character. The estate was appraised at $1,800,000 in stocks, bonds and real estate. There was an immense inheritance tax to be paid and harassing litigation was at once begun and continued. It was not until the winter of 1917 that the executors commenced a distribution of the funds. Mrs. Catt incorporated the Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, which has received and expended all monies realized from the estate. They were a large factor in the legitimate expenditures for obtaining the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment from Congress and its ratification by 36 State Legislatures. They were also of great assistance in the campaigns of the last years to secure the amendments of State constitutions, which required organizers, speakers, printing, postage, etc. Contributions have been made to women's struggle for the franchise in other countries.