During this week of the convention the Federal Prohibition Amendment made its triumphant passage through the House, having already passed the Senate, and the suffragists saw the bitterest opponents of their amendment on the ground of State's rights throw this doctrine to the winds in their determination to put through the one for prohibition. They felt that the adoption of that amendment opened wide the way for the passing of the one for suffrage in the near future and this was the view generally taken by the public. Another event in this remarkable week was the creation and appointment of a Woman Suffrage Committee in the House of Representatives, for which the association had been so long and earnestly striving. This was done against the vigorous opposition of the Judiciary Committee, which for the past forty years had prevented the question of woman suffrage from coming before the House for a vote. At this time it reported the Federal Amendment "without recommendation" and tried to prevent its being referred to the new committee.
The report of the corresponding secretary, Mrs. Nettie R. Shuler, for 1917, continued the story of the immense amount of work that had been done at and through the national headquarters, beginning immediately after the great impetus of the Atlantic City convention. A nation-wide campaign was instituted under the three heads set forth by Susan B. Anthony at the beginning of the movement—Agitate, Educate, Organize. It was decided to center the effort even more than ever before on the Federal Amendment and a wide call was sent out for universal demonstrations in its favor, where a resolution for it would be adopted. Twenty-six States responded, New York leading with 101 such meetings. These were followed by visits to State political conventions to secure endorsements, which met with considerable success, and candidates for Congress were interviewed in most of the States. There was advertising in the street cars of Washington during the sessions of Congress. Carefully selected literature was distributed by the hundreds of thousands of copies to the clergy, the politicians, the business men, the rural population; no class was overlooked. Questionnaires were sent to the equal suffrage States for information which was compiled in pamphlets. The first experiment in "suffrage schools," which proved so successful that they were made a permanent feature of the work, was thus described:
It was the general of our suffrage army, Mrs. Catt, "the country's greatest expert in efficient suffrage methods," who first saw the need of suffrage schools and put them into effect in New York State. She knew the value of systematic training and realized that our failure many times had not alone been due to the fact that numbers of women would not work but that those who were willing were untrained and inefficient. It was at first proposed to charge for instruction in the schools but this plan had to be abandoned and the National Association assumed most of the financial obligation.
Our first school was held in Baltimore in December, 1916. The manager was Mrs. Livermore, the instructors herself, Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Geyer. The second was in Portland, Me., January 8-20, 1917. The nineteen schools were all under the direction of the organization department. They began with Maryland and extended through fourteen of the southern and middle-west States, closing March 30 in Detroit, Mich. Three instructors, Mrs. Halsey Wilson, Mrs. Cotnam and Miss Doughty, taught Suffrage History and Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising, Parliamentary Law. The chairman of organization, Mrs. Shuler, taught Organization, Parliamentary Law and Money Raising in the Portland school and in the last five schools of the series.
Mrs. Shuler referred to the war work of the association, which is described elsewhere, and told of the wide field that had been covered by organizers, who had reached the number of 225 during the year, many of them employed by the States. The organization work was classified and standardized. A conference of organizers met in New York where they were instructed by Mrs. Catt, and a pamphlet, the A. B. C. of Organization, was prepared by Mrs. Shuler. As an example of the work done, nine organizers reported 385 meetings in eleven weeks in 25 States and organization effected in 178 towns. The report told of the work done from the headquarters for the Presidential suffrage that had been obtained in various States and in campaigns.
The report of the Committee on Presidential Suffrage was of especial interest, as for the first time in all the years, with one exception, there were victories to record. This report had been made annually by Henry B. Blackwell, editor of The Woman's Journal until his death in 1910, but although he had implicit faith in the possibility of this partial franchise he did not live to see its first success in Illinois in 1913. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.) followed him in the chairmanship but met with an accident which caused her to relinquish it to Mrs. Robert S. Huse. She believed the granting of this form of the franchise helped the cause of full suffrage and through a questionnaire to the different States she had collected much information as to the best method of handling such bills. All wrote that the anti-suffragists were supported in their opposition to them by the liquor interests.
During a discussion of the war work of women Mrs. F. Louis Slade of New York moved (adopted) that as so large a share of the work of the Red Cross is done by women, the association request that women be given adequate representation on the War Council of the American Red Cross. Miss Yates suggested that Clara Barton's name be introduced into Mrs. Slade's resolution. Dr. Shaw spoke of the far-reaching importance of the work Clara Barton had accomplished and of the unworthy manner in which it had been treated. Mrs. L. H. Engle (Md.) suggested that the Red Cross be reminded that the plan of having women nurses in army hospitals had originated with a woman and that the first military hospital in the world had been established by a woman. Mrs. Medill McCormick moved that the Chair appoint a committee of three to confer with the Executive Committee of the American Red Cross. The Chair appointed Mrs. McCormick as chairman, Mrs. Slade and Dr. M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College.
Mrs. Catt read telegrams from Governor W. P. Hobby of Texas, the Houston Chronicle, the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor inviting the association to hold the next convention in that city; also "a telegram from the Mayor of Dallas, Texas, inviting it to meet there. Fraternal delegates cordially received by the convention were Mrs. Flora MacDonald Denison, honorary president of the Canadian Suffrage Association, and Mrs. Philip Moore, president of the National Council of Women. Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery was presented by Dr. Shaw as having been corresponding secretary of the association for twenty-one years and was warmly greeted. Mrs. Frances C. Axtel was introduced as a former member of the Legislature in Washington, now chairman of the U. S. Employees' Compensation Commission. Mrs. Margaret Hathaway, a member of the Montana Legislature, addressed the convention. The Rev. Olympia Brown told of the memorial of Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, which she had prepared, and asked the delegates to see that copies were placed in libraries. Mrs. Catt paid high tribute to Mrs. Brown's many years of work for woman suffrage. The Rev. James Shera Montgomery, of the Fourth M. E. Church, and the Rev. Henry N. Couden, Chaplain of the House of Representatives, pronounced the invocation at the opening of two sessions.
The elections of the association were models of fairness with no unnecessary waste of time. Mrs. Catt received all the votes cast for president but three. All of the other officers but one had only from 10 to 27 opposing votes. Five members of the old board retired at their own wish, one of them, Miss Meyer, being in the war service in France. Mrs. McCormick, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Shuler were re-elected. The new members were Miss Mary Garrett Hay (N. Y.), second vice-president; Mrs. Guilford Dudley (Tenn.) third; Mrs. Raymond Brown (N. Y.) fourth and Mrs. Helen H. Gardener (D. C.) fifth; Mrs. Halsey Wilson (N. Y.) recording secretary. The convention had voted to drop the two auditors from the list of officers and substitute two vice-presidents. A board of directors was elected for the first time, in the order of the votes received as follows: Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw (N. Y.); Miss Esther G. Ogden (N. Y.); Mrs. Nonie Mahoney (Tex.); Mrs. Horace C. Stilwell (Ind.); Dr. Mary A. Safford (Fla.); Mrs. T. T. Cotnam (Ark.); Mrs. Charles H. Brooks (Kans.); Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore (N. Y.).
In place of a flowery speech of acceptance Mrs. Catt laid out more and still more work and outlined a plan of organization for uniting the women of the enfranchised States in an association which should be auxiliary to the National American. Each State association would upon enfranchisement automatically become a member of this organization with an elected working committee of five persons, these State committees to be finally united in a central body to be known as the National League of Women Voters. [Handbook of convention, page 48.] Besides the obvious advantages, she suggested that such an organization would provide a way for recently enfranchised States to maintain intact their suffrage associations for the benefit of work on the Federal Amendment.[113]