By January of 1917 it had become apparent that the National Association had an increasingly direct and comprehensive part to play in State and Federal campaigns through its Press department as one of its various points of contact with the suffrage field. To inaugurate news and feature propaganda and information services that would be live wires of connection between 171 Madison Avenue and the State affiliations all over the country and the Capitol at Washington and the public press was the immediate prospect of the then Press department.... Its accumulated task included not only the conduct of its federal political campaign at Washington, not only its definite program of State propaganda and organization for constitutional amendment campaigns, it had on its hands as well the great "drive" for Presidential suffrage that had been initiated.
By spring Mrs. Catt's custodianship of the Leslie funds had been determined by court decision and plans that she had been mothering since 1915 could be put into execution. Those plans had for their central detail the founding of a bureau for the promotion of the woman suffrage cause through the education of the public to the point of seeing it as essential to democracy, and in March the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education was organized for that purpose. From the beginning the outstanding feature of the work was its size, and the outstanding need was to get it housed and departmentalized, with department heads and an adequate clerical staff. This done, the bureau, with a staff of twenty-four, swarmed out over the whole 15th floor, besides two small rooms on the 14th floor. It now includes six departments, counting the Magazine Department, which is an everlasting story by itself.
Miss Young told of merging the Woman's Journal, the Woman Voter and the National Suffrage News in the Woman Citizen, for which 2,000 subscriptions were taken at this convention. The report included those of Mrs. Harper, chairman of editorial correspondence; Mrs. Mary Sumner Boyd, of the research bureau; Miss Mary Ogden White, feature and general news department; Mrs. Rose Lawless Geyer, field press work. There was also a report of the Washington press bureau after the headquarters there were opened, at first in charge of Mrs. Gertrude C. Mosshart, afterwards of Miss Ethel M. Smith. The latter told of the unexcelled opportunities in that city for the distribution of news through the more than 200 special correspondents of the large newspapers and the bureaus of all the great press associations and syndicates. News had to be fresh and well written and 450 copies of each of her "stories" distributed. About half of them were sent to State press chairmen, presidents and others.
Mrs. Harper's work was almost wholly with editors, watching the editorials, which now came in literally by hundreds every day. Her report of three closely printed pages said in part:
When an editorial was friendly a letter of thanks has been sent expressing the hope that the paper would contain many such editorials. When one made a strong appeal for woman suffrage the editor has had a letter expressing the deep appreciation of all at headquarters and saying that it would unquestionably affect public sentiment in his city and State. In many instances, even in the largest papers, there have been mistakes in facts and figures, as the question has not been a national issue long enough for editors to become thoroughly informed, and these have been corrected as tactfully as possible. Often carefully selected literature, suited to the editor's point of view, has been enclosed—to Western editors arguments in favor of a Federal Amendment; to Southern editors statements on the good effects of woman suffrage in the Western States; to Eastern editors a good deal of both. Where an editorial has been directly hostile an argument has been taken up with the editor, supported by unimpeachable testimony. When the editor has been implacable I have frequently written to suffragists in his city to learn what were the influences behind the paper, and usually have found they were such as gave the editor no chance to express his own opinions, but even those papers have almost invariably published my letters.
During the year letters were written to over 2,000 editors in the United States and several in Canada and the returns through the clipping bureaus indicated that a large majority were published. The report said: "I wish there were space to give concrete instances of the results of this year's experiment. Editors have written that, while for years their paper had supported woman suffrage, this was the first time they ever had come in touch with the national organization or known that their work was being recognized outside of their own locality. Many who were wavering have been persuaded to come out definitely in favor; this has been especially noticeable in the South. In a number of cases papers which condemned a Federal Amendment have been helped to see its necessity, and this in the South as well as the North...." As an example of the many special articles it continued:
When the "picketing" began in Washington last January, almost every newspaper in the United States held the entire suffrage movement responsible for it. At once 250 letters were sent in answer to editorials of this nature, stating that the National American Association organized in 1869, had been always strictly non-partisan and non-militant; that it represented about 98 per cent. of the enrolled suffragists of the United States; that all the suffrage which the women possessed to-day was due to its efforts and those of its State auxiliaries, and that Dr. Shaw, its honorary president, and Mrs. Catt, its president, strongly condemned the "picketing." The letter urged the newspapers in their comment on it to make a clear distinction between the two organizations. In countless instances this request was complied with but at the time of the Russian banner episode of the "pickets" before the White House another flood of more than 1,000 editorials poured into the national headquarters, many of them crediting it to the whole cause. A second letter more emphatic than the first was sent to 350 of the largest newspapers in the country, enclosing Mrs. Catt's protest against the "picketing." These had the desired effect and practically all of the papers thereafter, except those hostile to woman suffrage, exonerated the National Association from any part in it.
An argument for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and asking support for it was sent to a carefully selected list of 2,000 editors the month before the first vote was taken in Congress. Over 500 individual letters were sent, for the most part to prominent persons, called out by some expression of theirs, which almost without exception were cordially answered. A long letter to the International Suffrage News each month had been part of the work of this department.
Miss White's report on publicity should be reproduced in full, as it convincingly showed why all of a sudden the newspapers of the country were flooded with matter on woman suffrage. Not until the Leslie bequest became available had the National Association been possessed of the funds to do the publicity work necessary to the success of a great movement. She told how the very first "stories" sent out describing the granting of Presidential suffrage in the winter of 1917 brought back returns of about half-a-million words. The story of the Maine campaign returned 79 columns in 145 papers and Mrs. Catt's speeches, 50,000 words. Her protest against the "antis" charge of disloyalty against the suffragists instantly brought a return of 16 columns in 40 metropolitan papers. Feminism in Japan, a story written in the bureau around a little Japanese suffragist, was sent out by syndicate to a circulation of 10,000,000. The War Service of the National Suffrage Association was told in 15,000 words and the first instalment came back in over 500 newspapers and 400,000 words. The papers gave 680,000 words to the story of the Woman's Committee of National Defense. These figures might be continued indefinitely. Plate matter was furnished to 500 papers in sixteen States in May, and the bulletins of facts, statistics and propaganda issued during the nine months would make a book of 25,000 words.
The report of Mrs. Geyer, a trained journalist, was equally valuable. A part of her work had been to organize a press committee in every State, arrange for the collection of news and put it in proper form for the bulletins, the plate service, the Woman Citizen or wherever it was needed and make a roster of the principal newspapers and their position on woman suffrage. She had managed in person the press work for the Maine campaign, the Mississippi Valley Conference in Columbus, O., and the present national convention.