Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/436

4 22 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE to Washington at the request of the National Congressional Com- mittee to interview President Wilson in behalf of favorable action on the Federal Amendment by the House of Representatives. The committee could not arrange for a special interview but finally saw him by going to the White House at the hour set aside for the reception of the general public and made their request. The President was cordial and said that he was giving the matter careful consideration and hoped soon to take a decided stand which he thought the suffragists would find satis- factory. The speakers were its chairman, Mrs. Feickert, Mrs. Van Winkle and Miss Melinda Scott, who represented the organized working women of New Jersey. In April, 1914, the State headquarters were transferred to Pluinfield, the home of the president, who took charge of them. Board meetings were held in different sections of the State each month, followed by open conferences for suffragists from the nearby towns. Each of these was attended by from 50 to _>5<> and resulted in greatly increased activity in the branches. During the summer a number of county automobile tours were made, a "flying squadron" of decorated cars going from town to town, holding meetings and distributing literature. These tours were well worked up and advertised and very successful. A great deal of the work connected with them was done by Miss Florence Halsey, a volunteer field organizer. During July a week of suffrage meetings was held in Asbury Park, the auditorium there given free on condition that there should be debates and not merely presentations of suffrage. Over a hundred columns of publicity were secured for them in the New Jersey papers and during the week the hotels of Asbury Park and nearby resorts were canvassed and thousands of leaflets and circulars given out. This year over 300,000 pieces of litera- ture were distributed by the State association and the Political Union. A weekly press service was established by the association and news bulletins and special stories were sent regularly to over one hundred papers. The local branches of the association in- creased to 96 and of the Political Union to 15, with a membership of 22,000 and 4,000 respectively. At the annual convention of the association held in Camden in November the new officers