Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/563

NATIONAL AMERICAN CONVENTION OF 1917 527 term of eight months, the offices moved at once and cards sent out to 2,000 people for a housewarming before we had been there a week. During five months Miss Meyer and I made 300 calls, organized a Junior Suffrage League, planned for publicity "stunts," such as the dedication of the Susan B. Anthony room, the presentation of a flag by Pennsylvania, a poster exhibit, celebration of the North Dakota victory and the mid-lenten bazaar. Much of the work was of the sort that would be impossible to tabulate, but the effect of the whole in making the National Association well known in Wash- ington and able to work effectively from there has proved the wis- dom of the expenditure for the headquarters. The latter part of February the so-called War Council was called, a meeting of the association's Executive Committee of One Hun- dred, and planning for that and the mass meeting on Sunday kept us all busy for several weeks. This Council decided that the suf- fragists should undertake certain definite forms of war work and the chairmanship of the division of the Elimination of Waste was given to me. . . . Summing up the year I have attended six State meet- ings, spoken 200 times in 15 States, written 3,000 letters and travelled 13,000 miles. All of Friday was given to symposiums on different phases of this movement, grouped as follows: What my State will do for the Federal Amendment. Should We Work for Woman Suffrage in War Time? What Good Will Woman Suffrage Do Our Country ? What is the Best Thing it Has Done for my State? What Can the Enfranchised Women Do to Secure Suf- frage for the Women of the Entire Nation? Twenty-five wo- men, most of them State presidents, took part in these valuable discussions. Mrs. McCormick related how her work as chairman of the national Press Committee had been taken over by the press de- partment of the Leslie Bureau of Education when it was organ- ized the preceding March and a merger committee appointed consisting of Miss Rose Young and Mrs. Ida Husted Harper of the Leslie Commission, and Mrs. Shuler and herself of the asso- ciation. 1 The report of the Leslie Bureau filled over thirty pages of fine print as submitted by Miss Young, director, who said in beginning: 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 1 For information regarding the bequest of Mrs. Frank Leslie see Appendix.