In November the Association for the Advancement of Women met in Detroit. Many suffragists were in attendance and the State president, Mrs. Doe, called a council in the parlors of the Church of Our Father. Fifty responded and it was unanimously decided to renew the effort for Municipal Suffrage.
The annual meeting was held in the State House at Lansing, Jan. 19-21, 1889. A letter was received from Senator Palmer, enclosing a draft for $100 and saying: "Equal suffrage in municipal affairs means better statutes, better ordinances, better officers, better administration, lower taxation, happier homes and a better race." This generous gift enabled the association to keep a committee—Helen Philleo Jenkins, Harriet A. Cook, Mrs. Ketcham and Mrs. Knaggs—at the capital for several weeks, where they worked systematically to convert members and to secure victory.
The convention met at Detroit, Feb. 13, 14, 1890. Mrs. Doe, who had been the leader of the State forces since their organization, declined renomination and Mrs. Jenkins was chosen president.
The association convened at Lansing again Feb. 10-12, 1891; and its speakers were given a joint hearing in Representative Hall on the Municipal Suffrage Bill, which was then before the Legislature. Addresses were made by Harriet J. Boutelle, Belle M. Perry, Sarah E. V. Emery and Martha Snyder Root.
Miss Anthony was present at the State convention, which took place in Battle Creek, May 4, 5, 1892. Articles of incorporation were adopted and Mrs. Ketcham was elected president.
In June the State Republican Convention met at East Saginaw. Mrs. Ketcham, with Mrs. Doe, chairman of the legislative committee, pleaded before the Committee on Resolutions for recognition of this measure. They were courteously treated and when about to retire their opinion was asked on a list of resolutions presented from Genesee County, viz.: That women professors be appointed at Michigan University until their number should bear a fair proportion to the number of women students; that women be appointed on boards of control of the State penal, reformatory and charitable institutions; that Municipal Suffrage for women be recommended, and that an amendment to the State constitution, striking out the word "male" as a qualification for voters, be submitted to the electors. The ladies indorsed all except the fourth proposition, but none of them was adopted.
After the nominations for the Legislature had been made, letters were written to candidates of all parties to ascertain their attitude toward the Municipal Suffrage Bill. Many favorable and some evasive replies were received, while not a few letters were wholly ignored. A suffrage lecture course was arranged in eight cities, from November, 1892, to March, 1893, inclusive, with Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Association and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Lida A. Meriwether of Tennessee, as speakers.
The next annual convention was held in the Capitol, Feb. 1-3, 1893. Mrs. Colby had preceded it in January with her address on Wyoming, given in Representative Hall, the facts and figures of which left a strong impression.[332] The speakers addressed the Legislature in behalf of the Municipal Suffrage Bill.
In January, 1894, Miss Anthony lectured at Ann Arbor before the University Association. By the efforts of Mrs. Olivia B. Hall, her hostess and friend of many years, preparations had been made for a mass meeting, in which the State E. S. A. participated, Miss Shaw also being present. It convened in Newberry Hall, January 15-17, with a large attendance and resulted in the organization of the Ann Arbor E. S. A., with one hundred members and Mrs. Hall as president. On the last evening she gave a large reception at her home in honor of the two ladies, which was attended by President and Mrs. George B. Angell and many of the university faculty.
This year's convention assembled at Grand Rapids, May 7-10, with the Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Illinois as the principal speaker.