Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/462

This page needs to be proofread.
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

44-6 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE The delegates came to the State convention at Troy in 1909 with high hopes that with headquarters established in New York City the suffrage work could be promoted as never before. It was held in the Y. M. C. A. building and greeted by representatives of the Emma Willard Association, City Federation of Women's Clubs, Daughters of the American Revolution and Teachers' Association. Mayor E. P. Mann extended an official welcome. Among the speakers was Professor Frances Squire Potter, national corresponding secretary. Mrs. William M. Ivins gave her impression of the suffrage movement in England and Miss Carolyn Crossett spoke on the meeting of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in London, which she attended with Dr. Shaw. Not since the constitutional convention in 1894 had so much work been reported. The State president or vice- president had attended meetings in 41 counties. All-day meetings were held in all the cities on the Hudson River with excellent speakers, including Dr. Shaw. The president, vice-president and corresponding secretary, Miss Alice Williams, remained at Albany for three months, speaking and working in the towns in the eastern part of the State. Three large Self -Supporting Women's Suffrage Leagues joined the association. In 1910 both the State association and the Woman Suffrage Party wrote Chairman Timothy Woodruff of the Republican and Chairman John A. Dix. of the Democratic State Committees requesting a hearing at the conventions. They were politely referred to the Resolutions Committees. They went to the Republican convention at Saratoga Springs, carrying their litera- ture and the printed resolution which they wished the committee to put in the platform : "We believe that the question of woman suffrage has reached such a degree of importance that the Legis- lature should submit an amendment for it to the voters of the State." The committee allowed ten minutes ; Mrs. Crossett presided and presented Mrs. Mary Wood, national organizer of the Republican women; Miss Mary Garrett Hay, a leader of the New York Woman Suffrage Party and other able speakers but no attention was paid to their request. This program was repeated at the Democratic convention in Rochester with the same result, and this had been the experience for years. At this