The entire tenth floor of the New Willard Hotel was utilized for convention purposes and the full meetings were held in the large ball room, which had been beautifully decorated under the artistic direction of Mrs. Glenna Tinnin, with flags, banners and delicate, symbolic draperies. The large number of young women was noticeable and the association seemed permeated with new life. "Old men and women for council and young ones for work," said Dr. Shaw smilingly, as she opened the convention. "The history that has been made by this organization is due to the toil and consecration of the women of the country during past years, and, while I am happy to see so many new faces, my heart warms when my eyes greet one of the veterans. So in welcoming you I say, All hail to the new and thank God for the old!"
The convention plunged at once into reports. That of Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers, the treasurer, showed receipts during the past year of $51,265 and disbursements of $42,396, among them $12,000 for State campaigns. A large and active finance committee had been formed and thousands of appeals for money distributed. At this convention $50,000 were pledged for the work of the coming year and the convention showed fullest confidence in the new treasurer, who said in presenting her report: "This has been a most interesting and beautiful year of activity for the National Association. The officers and assistants at the headquarters have worked in perfect harmony. You have all, dear presidents and members of the sixty-three affiliated associations, been most kind to your new treasurer and she has deeply appreciated your forbearance."
The report of a temporary organization, the Volunteer League, was given by its director, Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick. Its purpose was to interest suffragists who were not connected with the association and President Mary E. Woolley of Mt. Holyoke College, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and Mrs. Winston Churchill accepted places on the board. Letters were sent out, avoiding the active workers, and over $2,000 were turned into the treasury. The legal adviser, Miss Mary Rutter Towle, reported a final accounting of the estate of Mrs. Lila Sabin Buckley of Kansas and the association received the net amount of $9,551 on a compromise. The legacy of $10,000 by Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall of Iowa would be paid in a few months.
Charles T. Hallinan, as chairman, made a detailed report of the newly organized Publicity Department. Miss Clara Savage, of the New York Evening Post, was made chairman of the Press Bureau and Mrs. Laura Puffer Morgan of Washington, D. C., a member of the Congressional Committee, took charge of its publicity. Mrs. Ernest Thompson Seton accepted the chairmanship of a special finance committee which did heroic work. The News Letter, an enlarged bulletin of information and discussion in regard to the activities of the association, had already more than a thousand subscriptions and went to 116 weekly farm papers, 99 weekly labor papers and 120 press chairmen and suffrage editors. The report told of the successful publicity work for Dr. Shaw and other speakers, and said: "I prize especially my relationship with Dr. Shaw, whose courage, humor and zest, whose whole heroic personality, have made this a stimulating and memorable year." An amusing account was given of the effort "to accommodate the routine activities of the organization to the demand of the press for something new or sensational, which made great demands upon the originality, initiative and judgment of both the board and the publicity department," but it was managed about four times a week. The Sunday papers "drew heavily upon the ingenuity of the publicity department; special or feature stories were sent to special localities; for instance those that would appeal to the Southerners to the papers of the South, others to those of the West, and others were prepared for the syndicates and press associations." Of a new and important feature of the work Mr. Hallinan said: "The need of a competent Data Department for the National Association was early recognized but it seemed a difficult thing to manage on the budget provided by the convention. It was finally decided that owing to the pressure of the campaigns the money must be found somehow and it was. In September the department was established on a temporary basis with Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, formerly associate editor of The Survey, in charge. She was admirably equipped for research work and soon got into usable shape the valuable records of the national headquarters. Sometimes the pressure upon the department for facts, including 'answers to antis,' was tremendous but there were few requests for information which were not answered by mail or telegraph within 24 or 48 hours."
Mrs. Boyd's own full report of her first year's work was heard with much interest and satisfaction. In it she said:
The opponents of woman suffrage have by their criticisms made it cover the whole field of human affairs, so it is not surprising that the inquiries by correspondents of this department have ranged from the moral standard of women to a request for assistance in righting a personal wrong. Others come under main headings of the progress of woman suffrage, both partial and complete; the standing of women under the laws; the effect of voting women on the character of legislation; the part they take in political life and its reaction on their lives and characters; statistics and facts in regard to the makeup of the population of the various States; details in regard to State constitutions, election laws and methods of voting on woman suffrage in the various States.... What has become of late "stock" anti-criticisms of some effects of the ballot has been thoroughly investigated and "stock" answers prepared. Facts and figures from official sources have been gathered to disprove the claim of enforced jury duty, excessive cost of elections, lowered birth rates and increased divorce rates in suffrage States. The results of these studies have been surprisingly favorable to the suffrage position, showing that in such criticisms the "antis" have been ridiculously in the wrong. They have only been able to use this line of argument at all because the suffragists have had no one free to take the time to answer them once and for all with the facts.
At an important afternoon conference Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, who had been chairman of the New York Campaign Committee during the effort for a State amendment, made the opening address on The Revelations of Recent Campaigns which shed a great deal of light on the causes of defeat. She was followed by Mrs. Frank M. Roessing, who, as president of the Pennsylvania association, had charge of the campaign in that State, and Mrs. Gertrude Halliday Leonard, who was a leading factor in the one in Massachusetts, both presenting constructive plans for those of the future. Mrs. Raymond Brown, Mrs. Lillian Feickert, Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton and Mrs. Draper Smith, presidents of the New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Nebraska associations, described the Need and Use of Campaign Organization. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, chairman of the New York City Campaign Committee, and Miss Hannah J. Patterson, chairman of the Woman Suffrage Party of Pennsylvania, told from practical experience How to Organize for a Campaign. The conference was continued through the evening, Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, president of the Massachusetts association, speaking on the Production and Use of Campaign Literature; Mrs. John D. Davenport (Penn.) telling How to Raise Campaign Funds in the County and Mrs. Mina Van Winkle (N. J.) and Mrs. Maud Wood Park (Mass.) how to do so in the city. Mrs. Teresa A. Crowley (Mass.) discussed the Political Work of Campaigns. Another afternoon was devoted to a general conference of State presidents and delegates on the subject of Future Campaigns. It was recognized that these were henceforth to be of frequent occurrence and the association must be better prepared for their demands.
Mrs. Medill McCormick presided at the evening conference on Federal Legislation and the speeches of all the delegates clearly showed that they considered the work for the Federal Amendment paramount to all else and the States won for suffrage simply as stepping stones to this supreme achievement. Senator John F. Shafroth was on the platform and answered conclusively many of the anti-suffrage misrepresentations as to the effect of woman suffrage in Colorado. Every hour of days and evenings was given to conferences, committee meetings, reports from committees and States and the practical preparations for entering upon what all felt was the last stage of the long contest. The overshadowing event of the convention was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw's retirement from the presidency, which she had held eleven years. The delegates were not unprepared, as she had announced her intention in the following brief letter published in the Woman's Journal Nov. 27, 1915:
During the last year I have been increasingly conscious of the growing response to the spoken word on behalf of this cause of ours. Because of the unparalleled large audiences drawn to our standard everywhere, I have become convinced that my highest service to the suffrage movement can best be given if I am relieved of the exacting duties of the presidency so that I may be free to engage in campaign work, since each year brings its quota of campaign States. Therefore, after careful consideration, I have decided not to stand for re-election to the office of president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I have deferred making this announcement until the campaigns were ended, but now that it is time to consider the work for the coming year, I feel it my duty to do so.