amending city
charters for woman suffrage and Mrs. Roger G. Perkins described the
successful campaign in East Cleveland for this purpose. The recent
campaigns in West Virginia and South Dakota were discussed by the
State presidents, Mrs. Ellis A. Yost and Mrs. John L. Pyle; that of
Iowa by Mrs. Geyer, publicity director, and the work in Tennessee for
a constitutional convention by Mrs. James M. McCormack, State
president. The chairman of the Presidential Suffrage Committee, Mrs.
Robert S. Huse (N. J.), reported that bills had been introduced in the
Legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Kentucky and Rhode Island,
public hearings being granted by the first three, but no vote was
taken.
Is Limited Suffrage Worth While? was answered by Mrs. George Bass
(Ills.) who declared it to be "a positive influence for good"; it was
called by Mrs. Grace Wilbur Trout (Ills.) "a step toward full
suffrage"; by Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton (Ohio) "a help to other
States." Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch described "the chances opened
by the Illinois law." It was the consensus of opinion that partial
suffrage was quite worth striving for. This was directly opposed to
that heretofore held by the association but in the past only a
Municipal vote had been asked for and Kansas alone had granted it.
Miss Laura Clay (Ky.) made a strong presentation of the Elections
Bill, which would permit women to vote for members of Congress. What
Kansas Thinks about Woman Suffrage was graphically told by Mrs. W. Y.
Morgan, president of the State association. Help from the West was
promised by Mrs. Emma Smith DeVoe (Wash.), president of the National
Council of Women Voters.
The climax of the convention came on the evening of September 8 with
the address of Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only
once before had a President appeared before a national suffrage
convention--when William Howard Taft made a ten-minute speech of
welcome to Washington in 1910 but without committing himself to the
movement. When the present convention was called, after the
endorsement of woman suffrage by the national conventions of all
parties, the two leading candidates for President were invited to
address it. Judge Hughes, who had declared in favor of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment, answered that he would be too far away on a
speaking tour to reach Atlantic City. President Wilson wrote that he
would endeavor to arrange his itinerary so as to be present. Later he
annou
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