Association drop work for
State Referenda and concentrate on the Federal Amendment? Leader, Mrs.
Ida Husted Harper, New York; second, Mrs. Glendower Evans,
Massachusetts.

Shall the present policy of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association to work for woman suffrage "by appropriate National and
State legislation" be continued? Leader, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York;
second, Miss Florence Allen, Ohio.

The alternative amendments to the constitution will then be put: I. To
strike out the words "National and." II. To strike out the words "and
State." If both are lost, the constitution will remain as it is and
the National American Woman Suffrage Association will stand pledged to
both Federal and State campaigns.

The speakers presented their arguments with great earnestness; the
discussion was vigorously carried on and the rebuttals were made with
much spirit. By request the honorary president, Dr. Shaw, who was
sitting on the platform, closed the debate and she strongly urged that
there should be no change in the policy of the association. The
convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of continuing to work for
both National and State constitutional amendments, nearly all of the
southern delegates joining in this vote. Mrs. Harper then rose to a
question of personal privilege and said that she should consider it a
great calamity for the association to discontinue its work for State
amendments and that she only took the opposite side at the urgent
request of Mrs. Catt, with the promise that she should be permitted to
make this explanation. Mrs. Evans made a similar statement and the
audience, which had been mystified by their position, had a hearty
laugh. This debate and the vote of the convention restored the
association to its position of standing for the original Federal
Suffrage Amendment and working for amendments of State constitutions
as a means to this end.

In the evening a brilliant reception for the officers and delegates
was given in the large drawing-room of the Marlborough-Blenheim by the
Atlantic City Woman Suffrage Club and the New Jersey State
Association.

The convention was opened in the New Nixon Theater Thursday morning
with prayer by the Rev. Thomas J. Cross, pastor of the Chelsea Baptist
Church, and much routine business was disposed of. The constitution
was changed so as to exclude from membership all organizations not in
harmony with the policy of the association and the term of the
of