Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/208

194 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and the senior editor of the Woman's Journal, Henry B. Blackwell. Headquarters were es- tablished in Topeka. Petitions for Presidential suffrage with about 32,000 signatures had been secured to be presented to the Legislature of 1903. There was an increased vote of women at the spring election and forty-two were elected as county officers, for whom only men could vote. The State convention of 1903 was held in Abilene December 8-9 and Miss Kimber was again re-elected. She reported suf- frage meetings conducted at the Winfield, Beloit and Lincoln Chautauquas. Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Colorado was the outside speaker and afterwards spoke in four of the principal cities. Mrs. Sadie P. Grisham of Cottonwood Falls was elected president at the convention held in Topeka Nov. 9, 10, 1904. The increase of membership of nearly a thousand was largely accredited to the efforts of Mrs. Alice Moyer, State organizer. Presidential suffrage was again adopted for the year's work. The suffrage departments were maintained at the Chautauqua meetings and literature and letters were sent to every member of the incoming Legislature. The convention of 1905 was held in Topeka October 20-21. Mrs. Grisham refused a second term and Mrs. Roxana E. Rice of Lawrence was elected president. On Oct. 14, 1906, the convention met in Topeka and Mrs. Rice was re-elected and with others of her board represented Kansas at the national convention in Chicago the next February. The annual meeting of 1907 was again held in Topeka on November 14 and a report from the national convention was given by the vice-president, Mrs. Lilla Day Monroe, but all propositions and resolutions offered by the mother organization were either rejected or referred to a committee and at the conclu- sion of Mrs. Monroe's report she moved that "the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association withdraw from the National." After dis- cussion to the effect that it could do more effective work alone the motion was carried. Mrs. Monroe was elected president, Mrs. J. D. McFarland first and Mrs. Rice second vice-president. The treasurer reported $260 in the treasury and was instructed to pay $25 to the Susan B. Anthony memorial fund. The board