r mind--Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and
myself--and for several months we gave the suffrage world the unusual
spectacle of rivals vigorously pushing each other's claims. Miss Anthony
was devoted to us both, and I think the choice was a hard one for her to
make. On the one hand, I had been vice-president at large and her almost
constant companion for twelve years, and she had grown accustomed to
think of me as her successor. On the other hand, Mrs. Catt had been
chairman of the organization committee, and through her splendid
executive ability had built up our organization in many states. From
Miss Anthony down, we all recognized her steadily growing powers; she
had, moreover, abundant means, which I had not.

In my mind there was no question of her superior qualification for the
presidency. She seemed to me the logical and indeed the only possible
successor to Miss Anthony; and I told "Aunt Susan" so with all the
eloquence I could command, while simultaneously Mrs. Catt was pouring
into Miss Anthony's other ear a series of impassioned tributes to me.
It was an unusual situation and a very pleasant one, and it had two
excellent results: it simplified "Aunt Susan's" problem by eliminating
the element of personal ambition, and it led to her eventual choice of
Mrs. Catt as her successor.

I will admit here for the first time that in urging Mrs. Catt's fitness
for the office I made the greatest sacrifice of my life. My highest
ambition had been to succeed Miss Anthony, for no one who knew her as I
did could underestimate the honor of being chosen by her to carry on her
work.

At the convention in Washington that year she formally refused the
nomination for re-election, as we had all expected, and then, on being
urged to choose her own successor, she stepped forward to do so. It was
a difficult hour, for her fiery soul resented the limitations imposed by
her worn-out body, and to such a worker the most poignant experience in
life is to be forced to lay down one's work at the command of old age.
On this she touched briefly, but in a trembling voice; and then, in
furtherance of the understanding between the three of us, she presented
the name of Mrs. Catt to the convention with all the pride and hope a
mother could feel in the presentation of a daughter.

Her faith was fully justified. Mrs. Catt made an admirable president,
and during every moment of the four years she held the office she had
Miss Anthony's whole-hearted and e