.
Diggs and Mrs. Wait were the other members. Mrs. Avery contributed
$1,000 toward this canvass. Outside speakers were Miss Florence
Balgarnie of England, Mrs. Mary Seymour Howell of New York, Mrs. Clara
C. Hoffman of Missouri, and the Rev. Miss Shaw. The State speakers
were Mesdames S. A. Thurston, May Belleville Brown, Elizabeth F.
Hopkins, J. Shelly Boyd and Caroline L. Denton. Mrs. Johns arranged
all of these conventions, presided one day or more over each and spoke
at every one, organizing in person twenty-five of the thirty-one local
societies which were formed as a result of these meetings.

The first week in June a two-days' suffrage conference was held at
the Ottawa Chautauqua Assembly, with the assistance of Miss Anthony,
president, and Miss Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National
Association. From here Miss Anthony went to the State Republican
Convention, in session at Topeka, accompanied by Mrs. Johns, Mrs.
Hopkins and Mrs. Brown, officers of the State suffrage society. They
were joined by Miss Amanda Way and "Mother" Bickerdyke, and by
unanimous vote all of these ladies were given seats upon the floor of
the convention. Miss Anthony was invited to address the body,
conducted to the platform amid ringing cheers and her remarks were
cordially received. Later several of the ladies addressed the
resolutions committee, and the final result, by 455 yeas, 267 nays,
was a plank in the platform unequivocally declaring for the submission
of an amendment to the constitution to enfranchise women. A similar
plank already had been adopted by the Populist State Convention at
Wichita with great enthusiasm.

During the autumn campaign following, Mrs. Diggs and other women spoke
from the Populist platform, and Miss Anthony, Mrs. Johns and Mrs. T.
J. Smith from the Republican. Miss Anthony, however, simply called
attention to the record of the Republican party in the cause of human
freedom, and urged them to complete it by enfranchising women, but did
not take up political issues.

The State convention of 1892 was held at Enterprise, December 6-8, and
the problem of preserving the non-partisan attitude of the
organization so as to appeal with equal force to Republicans and
Populists presented itself. With this in view, Mrs. Diggs, a Populist,
was made vice-president, as support and counsellor of Mrs. Johns, the
president, who was a prominent Republican, and the association,
despite the political diversity of its mem