CATT, Carrie Chapman GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Shaw, ANNA H. February 2, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw, I enclose a letter from Mrs. Cooley together with my answer. I fear that lady is a Tartar, but I would not wonder if Florida does not resent Dr. Safford as president of the suffrage forces. Almost any state would feel that way about a newcomer taking a lead in such a movement. If you think there is any information concerning Mrs. Cooley that I ought to have, please let write me, otherwise let it drop. Please return the letter. Cordially yours, President. C.R. New York, February 1, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw, I learn that Nicholas is coming up to Headquarters when you go to Florida. She will be very welcome, as you must know. I wish we might keep her all the time. I should certainly find a way to make good use of her if I were here. I am leaving today, however, for Chicago. I am going to try to get the women there to form a Committee of Arrangements for a big demonstration in connection with the Republican Convention in June. [Republican Convention Demonstration] I am going on to St. Louis for the same purpose and midway between these two appointments I shall go to Des Moines and make a survey of the situation and to meet with their Board. I shall be back in New York on the 12th of February, but if the plans go through I shall not be here very much for some time to come. We have taken new headquarters and the partitioning is being done this week. Miss Patterson thinks that she will have us moved before I get back. We shall have to wait some days before the tinting is done on the walls as they must first get dry. I fear we shall be somewhat crowded even then as we have more working officers than formerly. However, it is a larger place and I hope a bit more cheerful. At the Board meeting which was held in January we decided to try for a nation-wide series of Congressional Conferences and that we would offer one to every state In order to compass this ambition we proposed to organize four campaign corps, to have these conferences divided into four groups and going on simultaneously. There was nothing the matter with the plan, but when it came to realities we found an appalling epidemic of grippe and absolutely no one with ability to draw an audience who was able to go out as a speaker. We have therefore drawn in our horns somewhat and are holding these conferences as best we can and with the kind of people we are picking up. I had hoped in the beginning that I need not attend many. I thought I would go where there was trouble and do what I could to smooth out difficulties, but owing to the fact that workers were either ill or occupied, I am going to visit most of those that are now scheduled. [Congressional Conferences] We made the offer to the South as to other parts of the country and I awaited the replies with much curiosity. I thought the answers would reveal the real attitude of the South toward the Federal Amendment. As a result of the correspondence which followed, we withdrew the offer of Congressional Conferences. Most of the women seemed to have no objection to the Federal Amendment but they had a fear of it that it would arouse the latent hostility to government action in their respective states. The correspondence which followed again indicated that they would be delighted to have the conferences provided they were not distinctly Congressional Conferences. I think they need them very much. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, #2 In the series which I will attend Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan, and Tennessee will be reached if all goes well. I am by today's mail sending a letter to the other Southern Presidents, a copy of which I enclose. I write especially to ask if you think you could attend the conferences of this Southern group. It would include the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and perhaps Texas. We can have Mrs. Cotnam of Arkansas whom I regard as a most important Southern woman. She speaks exceedingly well, has a great big soul and I think a good deal of practical sense. I should like to have Mrs. Roessing attend these conferences if she can get away from Washington to do so. There must be someone to take charge of the work conferences which we would want in connection with the propaganda part of the program. I am writing to ask whether she thinks she could get away. Mrs. Jacobs can also attend these conferences. If we could secure your services for the evening with short addresses by Mrs. Jacobs and Mrs. Cotnam, and with Mrs. Roessing to look after the day sessions, we should have a splendid Southern corps. It would not be possible for me to attend any of these. I name no date for these conferences for of course they would have to depend upon your health and strength. It would be impractical, I am sure, to have them too late in the season, but I should think that April would be possible. I believe it grows pretty hot in the South in the month of May. We are very anxious that these conferences should be held in advance of the National Conventions so that delegations of women can be worked up to take part in our demonstrations. Of course in the South the Republicans are mostly Negroes and it will not do to induce them to go to Chicago. I suppose that would queer the whole suffrage movement in the South, but we do want Democratic women to go to St. Louis. When I get back I shall know what kind of a demonstration it is that we shall try to pull off. Mrs. Roessing has been in Washington all the time since our Board met in January. Mrs. Funk is there with her and they are having some local assistance in the lobby. Mrs. Grenfell is coming from Colorado as soon as she gets over the grippe to help with the Western representatives. Mrs. Roessing has a splendid political head. I hope she does not find her work unenjoyable. She is certainly ideally designed for politics and hence the Congressional work. I recall the brief conversation with you in which you expressed yourself as not quite approving of Mrs. Roessing. I have seen her several times since the election in Washington and as I know her better the conviction grows that she is unselfishly devoted to the cause, highly intelligent, cautious and conservative, but pushing and executive. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, #3 I know Miss Patterson better for she has been in the office here. I feel certain that in a generation we have not come across a woman so well adapted to administration work as is Miss Patterson. She is quiet and unconspicuous about her work, but she is as businesslike as a corporation president. When we get moved and really running, I think we shall find her a magnificent manager. It is my intention to slip out at the end of a year for I am far too tired with the New York campaign to take the responsibility of so big a job as the National Association now involves. I am hoping that Mrs. Roessing will be willing to step into my place and that we can find a women who will come in as first Vice-president to take her place a little later when she steps out. [plans to retire] I will ask you to let Nicholas know if you could fill the appointments in the South and if so at what time you think you would be ready for them. We would try to hold three a week of two days' each and this would mean a total of three weeks, although it doubtless would be better for all concerned if we should allow the whole tour to stretch over a month. I wish also you would ask Nicholas to write me at once at the Hotel Chamberlain, Des Moines, Iowa, and tell me if you think you are going to be able to speak in Iowa, and if so at what time. They vote, you know, on the 5th of June. I have fortunately had interviews of late with quite a number of prominent people from Iowa. I sat beside a prominent woman from Burlington at a dinner the other day There is not a particle of organization there and I have heard of other places in similar condition. It does not look good to me. I am going to try to push them to greater activity. [Iowa Campaign] Most cordially yours, C.R. March 7, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Florence Villa, Florida. My dear Miss Shaw, It was very nice to get your letter and to note that you are able to write. I have myself been in the office so little and when I have been here there has been so much to do that I have not written you as I have many times thought I would like to do. We have all been so sorry that you have had this hard illness to endure. You were in luck, however, to have it just now when you could go away without taking with you the burden of the responsibility of the National work. I am glad you are beginning to long to get back into it, but you must be wise enough to keep out until you really "come back" as the prize fighters say. The situation in Iowa is as you say very troublesome and very discouraging. Miss Dunlap tells me that when she took over the presidency the organization had literally gone to smash. I think she said there were only nine leagues in the State. At any rate it was something pitiably weak. I had not in the last understand Miss Dunlap. She continues the attitude of "keep off the grass". One of the members of her Board told me that she resented my coming to attend the Board meeting. She parries every suggestion and we are not going to be able to do so much in the State as I wish we could on account of her point of view. However, I am keeping in close touch with the State and although conditions are pitiable as far as organization is concerned, the general condition is so much better than it ever was in the East that it seems a tragedy that we must lose the State. The people are more open-minded than they are here, and in general more favorable to woman suffrage, even when they have not had education on the subject. The antis are there in full force and are determined that we shall not carry the State. When we lost New York and other Eastern states I felt that they would not let us get Iowa. How much the anti women have to do with the general opposition of the liquor powers nobody knows, but the liquor people are not going to let us win a state if they can help it while prohibition is pending. Although Iowa has prohibition by statutory law an amendment to the constitution went through last year and will be presented to the 1917 legislature, and if passed there will go to vote in the autumn of 1917. The question of woman suffrage therefore is a live prohibition issue and the liquor interests know Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, #2 that a great deal better than the women do. I have not felt hopeful of the State at all and do not yet. We are standing by, however, and are doing all that they will allow us to do. I think it will be cruel for you to go there and give the time you have offered, unless there is a good prospect that such help may pull the State through. I am therefore going to take the liberty of quoting from your letter in writing Miss Dunlap and I enclose a copy of what I have said. I am myself going there for some time in April and that will give me a better opportunity to know what the chances are. As a matter of fact, most of the states which have been won have come in despite very inefficient campaigns, and so we cannot be certain that Iowa will not tumble in even though its campaign is not what it ought to be. I will keep you informed as to developments there. What Witter Bynner writes you is exactly what I hear from all the river cities. They are literally unworked. They have big German populations, anti-prohibition populations, but they do not entirely control the vote of the State. It is possible that Iowa is just the kind of a place that can be won with a whirlwind campaign at the end. I am sorry that you cannot be present at the Board meeting, but of course we would not expect that you could come. You will get the minutes after the meeting and I hope you will get them more promptly this time. Mrs. Morrison, I believe, is a good Secretary, but the scarlet fever breaking out in her family prevented the prompt delivery of the minutes of the last meeting. We are still a good deal unsettled in the new headquarters but I think they are going to prove very desirable when the painters really leave us and the debris is cleared away. Most cordially yours, C.R. March 16, 1916. My dear Miss Shaw, Since I wrote you last Mr. and Mrs. Homer Miller have been in New York They took dinner with me the other night and stayed with me from half past six to half past eleven. They came with the idea in their minds that the National Board was unwilling to help Iowa, For some unaccountable reason. They got that idea from Miss Dunlap. They tried to persuade me that Iowa was a national problem, and looked amazed when I said that I realized that much more keenly than anyone in Iowa possibly could. I told them that Miss Dunlap had made everybody feel that they were not wanted in the State and Mr. Miller looked amazed again. Finally his wife confessed that the Board in Iowa had been made to feel that they were not wanted. It was clear from the conversation that the difficulty is Miss Dunlap. The Presidents of Nebraska, Illinois and Minnesota have all got the same impression that you and I have through correspondence with her. Now, it may be that she is totally uncomprehending of the job she has before her and it may be that she is one of the jealous kind who want to keep everything in their own hands. I am inclined to think the difficulty is neither of these. She has worked in a settlement and has always been the whole thing. I believe that she does not know how to let others share in her responsibilities. I therefore concluded A.H.S. -2 concluded that I would be a grand "butinksy" from this time on. I s[] have a break with her before June, but I am sure she will hate me like the seven year itch before that time. I have written her a frank long letter, a copy of which I enclose for your entertainment since you have nothing to do just now. I say to you confidentially that I do not believe we can carry the Stat of Iowa, but I do not want you to regard this as final and I beg you not to repea it to others, because between now and June there may be a complete change of outlook. The American people are an emotional and changeable sort. The workers who are in Iowa and who were in the East say that there is an amazing difference between the attitude of mind in Iowa and New York. Elsie Benedict wrote that it was a joy to talk to people who had sense enough to know without being told where the antis get their money. On the other hand, the organization is most ineffectual and the campaign is being very badly conducted, that is, it is being conducted in a niggardly little way which is utterly out of proportion to the demands of the situation. The antis are in there working full blast. They have organized a woman's anti organization and a men's association opposed and both are working like mad. When we closed the campaign in New York I believed that it would be impossible to carry Iowa for the reason that they all said that they would never allow another State to be won if they could help it. I felt sure that Iowa would have no conception of what this would mean and that its organization would be unprepared to defend itself against such an on-slaught. Under the circumstances, there are two points of view, one that which y you have taken in your letter and with which I am entirely in accord -- that it is folly to waste our lives and our money in a State which does not do its part and which has not prepared for is campaign. I said to the Board the other day that my diagnosis of the National situation is that for the last dozen years all the money that the National could get together and all that the states could provide has been spent in campaigns, while a large part of your energy, strength and splendid talent has been exhausted in the same way. These campaigns have been followed in each State by a reaction and the money once having been spent A.H.S. -2 there, has not been used for a constructive building up of the National Association. I made it clear that this was no criticism upon the Board, but it was a condition which we would do well not to continue. That sounds well and logical, but now comes the other point of view which we also discussed. We had a great [ol] old fight in these four Eastern States. We certainly landed the movement, so far as the argument is concerned, upon an entirely new plane. We aroused an opposition and an immense hostility that had not existed before. The election closed the fight here, but our enemies have moved on to Iowa and they are talking all the trash they presented here, feminism, Mormonism, socialism and what not. It is a question whether we ought not to go on to Iowa even though we know we cannot win because it is another battle. We may lose that battle but we may out the enemy a little closer in the corner, and will we not have to fight out about so many of these battles before we win anything more. We concluded this was the right point of view to take, and so I am going to Iowa to do the best I can which will be little at this late date I am sure. I shall not have the temerity to ask Miss Dunlap to turn the campaign over to me as you suggest, but I will be a butinsky. For two weeks I am to hold Congressional Conferences and ten return to New York for a week. I shall begin in Iowa about the middle of April and stay there until the vote in June. I had already written to Iowa that is was uncertain whether you could go or not, and so I shall just wait now until I can take another look at the situation. I take it that you would not be speaking anywhere if not there, so it will be different from your ordinary years and you can hold the time. Perhaps you will get strong faster than you think and, if I find that there is really a fighting chance, perhaps your fighting blood will go to your head and you will want to get into the fray. If I conclude that it is a [su] sure defeat and you are not strong, you will feel and I shall too that you might as well keep out of it. However, for your encouragement let me say that I have spent two days dictating all the time about Colorado. That man Maling is in Iowa doing dirty A.H.S. -4 work. I had a talk with him myself and I have now written to every Congressman and to each newspaper and all the women I know, and I think I shall have succeede in stirring up a hornet's nest. I have asked one and all to institute an investigation as to who or what is backing that man. He is saying that it is he business interests of Colorado. I half believe it is. I am a bit fearful that the banks, mine owners and other big business are really sending along an official warning to the men of other states to beware of this terrible menace of woman suffrage, but, if it is so, it is better to smoke our enemy out and know where he is. When we have discovered that big business is against us, if we do, we will perhaps be able to make an effective appeal with other classes. I have asked the members of Congress from Colorado to introduce a resolution demanding an investigation of the credit and stability of Colorado which has been so generall attacked all over the country. I wonder if they will have the back bone to do it. Faithfully yours, NSF/CCC April 10, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Hotel Chelsea, Atlantic City, N. J. My dear Dr. Shaw, I want to acknowledge a personal letter I received for you some weeks ago. I have wanted so very much to answer that letter in the same heart-to-heart manner. I have been driven from pillar to post and feel now that I am leaving New York in a few moments as though I were a torpedo driven out of a submarine. I am going to merely give you a promise to write you a nice confidential letter as soon as I can. As they keep me going both day and night there seems little opportunity for doing the things one wants to do. I need not make this explanation to you for you know all about it. I sincerely hope that you will soon be well, and I want to tell you that I hope nothing will happen to interfere with the plan of having you go to Iowa for the last week of the campaign. Cordially yours, C.R. June 22, 1916. Miss Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pa. My dear Miss Shaw: I arrived home this morning and find your letter awaiting me. I too have been thinking a good deal about the possibilities concerning the proposed convention, but I do not agree with you that we can call an Executive Council and later the Annual Convention. Most of the Presidents have been to Chicago or St. Louis, and some to both. If they are now summoned to another Executive Council and later still to the Annual Convention we shall be sure to fail to secure a large attendance. I do not think we shall lose any of the publicity we need or of the "dramatic relation" to the campaign. In studying the constitution I find that there is no rule as to when it shall be held; that it is only necessary to publish it six weeks prior to the first session. We shall allow time enough for the Presidents and friends to send in notice of amendments to the constitution, if desired, and I believe that no grievances can possibly arise out of any conditions except these three. There is nothing in the constitution to prevent the election of officers and their inauguration at a later time provided the convention so orders. It says they shall hold office for one year, or until the end of the next convention. If we who are now in service announce our willingness to serve out our year, it seems to meet all requirements of the constitution. I have no doubt that there will be some who will object. There are always those, no matter what is going on. Miss Anna Howard Shaw -2- 6/22/16 In order to provide the necessary six weeks and to allow Presidents and boards time to offer amendments to the constitution, we will have to hold the convention the week beginning the 13th or the 20th of August. Miss Patterson and I who have just been talking it over, believe the week of the 20th will be safest. That will give ample time for all preliminary arrangements. I have going to Atlantic City Saturday morning to see whether we can make suitable arrangements there. I am sending a preliminary letter to the Presidents, a copy of which you will of course receive. I enclose a copy of the President's reply to our telegram. Mr. Hughes has said that he will not receive questioners about his stand on any subject until the notification has been officially given him of his nomination. A man who stands close to him here says that he will guarantee that his position is all right, and that the hope is expressed that he will come out for both methods of getting the vote. In conclusion let me say that although it is a difficult matter to pull off the convention in mid-summer and do it successfully, I believe it can be done. At any rate, it is worth trying and Miss Patterson and I feel very keenly that it will be impossible to hold the two meetings. We shall make no move without informing you as you will understand. Most cordially yours, CCC-S President Washington, D. C., June 28, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. Dear Dr. Shaw:- This is just a hurried note to tell you the latest news. Miss Hay and I went to Atlantic City to look over the ground there. We found it would be impossible to have a convention in August -- there are no halls available, and the city is so crowded during that month that they could not do much for us. We therefore took the earliest available dates, which fall in Labor Day week. It does not give as much time to arrange for election work if the convention agreed to do that sort of thing, but on the other hand, it gives us more time to make plans for the convention, so altogether I am pleased with the date. It remains to be seen as to whether we shall get our western delegates in as large numbers as we ought to have them for so crucial a meeting as this will be. Our headquarters will be at the Marlborough-Blenheim. It is the largest and best hotel, but on the other hand, it is an expensive one. The proprietors are in sympathy with our movement and are giving us rooms for the meetings in the hotel when we need executive sessions. I reserved rooms for the Board there. I took a double room with two beds for you, thinking that Miss Anthony might come with you. The price is $12 per day, but it is on the American plan, so it is not so exorbitant as it sounds. Will you please let me know if this will be agreeable, for if not I must make a different reservation. The single reservation for the same room is $8 per day. Of course such a room has a bath. Dr. Shaw -2 6-28-16. I presume they have mailed you the copy of the letter I left behind to go to the presidents. Mrs. Rogers reminds me that it does not read right on account of the later date, but we can make those details right in a later letter. Mrs. Roessing had arranged for a meeting of senators from the suffrage states immediately after my arrival. [*Meeting with senators from suffrage states] Of course Congress is running at a lively rate just now, and the sessions begin at 10:30 instead of 12. They sit continuously, and as the weather is hot and the men in a terrible hurry to get away, it is rather difficult to get at them. We were able to talk the matter over with about half of those from the enfranchised states. They promised to give us the vote in the Senate provided it can be put through without discussion. They do not want to take any time for the discussion of any question which is not imperative just now. We could not promise them that we would get the two-thirds vote, and so of course the question could not be regarded as of equal importance with the appropriation bills. We are now going to see the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to learn what can be done there. I have already seen men enough, and Mrs .Roessing's experience coincides with mine, to judge that the state rights planks will make no difference whatever with our western men -- they will vote for the federal amendment through thick and thin. [*Party planks] What effect it may have upon the eastern men remains to be seen. Mrs. Upton writes that the Republicans put a plank in their platform willingly, and the treatment they received was so extremely different from that which they had had before that she feels the planks have done great good to Ohio. In Indiana, which is quite strongly democratic, I was interested to observe that Democratic men and women regarded their plank as quite as good, if not a little better than the Republican plank. Everywhere people congratulate us upon the step forward, and seem to feel that a new impetus has been given the movement. I shall call a meeting of the Board for September 4 in Atlantic City, but that is only one day. We will have to have what we call a headquarters committee meeting to settle such small details as do not affect the larger questions, which of course must come before the whole Board. Will you be in New York at any time soon? If so, we will call that meeting when you are there. Most cordially yours, CCC-LA Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pa. July 19, 1916. My dear Miss Shaw: There was one matter that we forgot to tie up and that was what fee we are to charge for your meetings in the autumn. I am going to send out a circular letter at once announcing you and Mrs. McClung. We are going to name $50 as her fee. We agreed to pay her $200 a week and her expenses and we think that this will cover that agreement. We believe we can also furnish some publicity matter such as cards containing her picture and so on. Can we name $50 for you and could you then afford to furnish for such meetings some kind of advertising material such as we hope to prepare for Mrs. McClung? Mrs. Whitehouse called me up on the telephone to tell me that Miss Mills had notified them that she had asked the State Fair people to invite me to speak on the regular program at Syracuse in September. I was greatly surprised. Last year I had told her that she might do this. She was not then able to get the invitation. Whether it was her application of last year that has only now secured a reply, I do not know, but at any rate it is impossible for me to do it. Even tho I had the freedom at that time to accept, I can no longer speak out of doors. Every time I get a cold it goes to my larynx and my speaking apparatus and when I speak in the open air my voice catches and I am soon in such a state of distress that it not only renders me ineffective but must annoy the audience. I am, therefore, obliged to refuse all outdoor work. Mrs. Whitehouse asked me if I thought you would be willing to speak at the Fair. I told her that I doubted whether you would feel physically equal to it but she doubtless has taken the matter up with you. We certainly do need some strong and healthy big-voiced young women. Most sincerely yours, CCC--DD President _______________________________________________________________________________________________ July 20th, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, [???] Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw:- I return the letter just received. Miss Ogden had received such a letter so I had already heard about it. I have written a note at once to Mrs. Feickert urging her to be hospitable and welcome any of these branches which would come into the State Association. I have, by the same mail, received a nice note from Mrs. Van winkle sending in her dues and also making a few proposals. They have taken up the items in my letter to the President and have made comments on each one. They approve the change of name- National, State, and [National] Local to be alike, and propose "Women's Political Union" ! Cordially yours, F. July 21st, 1916. Miss Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pa. My dear Miss Shaw:- In reply to your letter just received concerning dates, let me say that I think you wished us to see what we could do in our Speakers' Bureau in regard to filling your dates for the entire time of October and November. I understand that you wished to speak during these two months. I am very glad indeed if you can generously give to us ten meetings for South Dakota and ten for West Virginia, as well as another block for a series of conferences. I wished to send to all the States an announcement about Mrs. McClung and also about you and Dr. Jones and to ask the states to take blocks of time. Of course, after we hear from them, we would have to arrange them. I think we could fill your time if you would allow us to do so. We never got our speakers' bureau in progress but I am anxious to get it going now. I think we will tie up a good many dates at the National Convention, but in order to do so I want to get the information before the presidents at this time. I note that you can give the 15th to the 24th to West Virginia. That is good, as far as it goes, but it would be infinitely better if these dates could come in October. You asked the other day about West Virginia, and I think you did not get the satisfaction you desired. [*WVA] Miss Patterson is there now. She is going to check up with Mrs. Yost all the work that is being done in the State. We want to find out whether she is making the best use of speakers and organizers. Had the local people known how to use their speaker in Iowa, and had the State known how to distribute them, we would have had a victory. We don't want West Virginia to fall down in that way, so Miss Patterson is going over the whole problem inch by inch. She has taken with her several propositions to offer Mrs. Youst, and on August 2nd, 3rd and 4th I am to go there -2- Miss Anna Howard Shaw 7/20/16 with Miss Patterson and we will hold a conference for workers. It will be strictly executive. When we get there with these two surveys we shall know what we can recommend. One of the things I suggested to take up with Mrs. Yost was a flying squadron for the last week in October. My idea was to imitate to Prohibition Flying Squadron, and to do a big, bold thing. The idea would be something like this:- [*Flying Squadron] Monday - Smith and Jones ) Tuesday - Brown and Butler ) Jonesville Wednesday - Peters and Patterson ) Tuesday - Smith and Jones ) Wednesday - Brown and Butler ) Smithville Thursday - Peters and Patterson ) You see these conferences would overlap, giving three to each place. I had hoped that you would be the star for one of these dates and Mrs. McClung for one. If we could make this arrangemtn, we would have twenty-one days in a week of suffrage revivals, seven of the chief towns being visited. We could get much more publicity and bigger audiences by working in this way. Can't you manage to let us have that time instead of September? Even those Miss Rutz-Rees could not go with you there would be somebody else. Of Course, Mrs. Yost may not think it advisable to do this big thing, but I hope she will and especially if the prospects are fairly good. I am working out a scheme for the elections which I hope will demand a large number of speakers for October. September is not a very good month and they will need that to get ready for the October campaign, so I would like very much if we could have a chance to get the States to take you for pay and reserve the last week in October for West Virginia. I write as kind and considerate a letter to Mrs. Pyle as I could, begging her to understand our point of view. I told her that if they gave any evidences of pulling up to a good campaign, we might later be persuaded to do something for them. In other words I held out a little hope to her. I pointed out that we had been kept in ignorance of the situation [*So Dak Pyle] there. I do not believe it will be worth our while to give time to South Dakota, but we shall see. The Southern Coference wil have to be one of those we will hold after the Convention, and indeed that might be postponed as late as the winter months. I had not taken the correspondence up with the presidents yet. I thought I would hold a conference with them at Atlantic City and talk it over. If you could go on that tour it would be splendid. [*South]Of course if I return to the presidency for the next six months it will not be possible for me to go into the field at all. As I will be burdended to fill Mrs. Roessing's and Miss Patterson's places, I shall have to do office work entirely. I am enclosing a copy of the Winning Policy List, you may not have one on hand - and a copy of the paragraph I have written to take -3- Miss Anna Howard Shaw 7/20/16 the place of the paragrph marked for elimination. Of course, I have not included all the intricacies of the explanation in your paragraph. I do not consider that whole story is either interesting or important to a general reader. I believe I have told the truth, and the whole truth, with the exception of unimportant details. Will you let me know if it strikes you in that way. Please return the matter, if you can, by the next mail. We are going to send out invitations to a number of distringuished people for the convention. The invitations are being mimeographed and they will include a printed call. Have you some names to whom you would like such invitations sent. If they duplicate those that have been sent in by State Presidents, we will, of course, check up and determine that fact. Most cordially yours, CCCatt President P.M.C. July 24, 1916. Miss Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pa. My dear Miss Shaw: I am just in receipt of your letter concerning the meetings. I am writing to the State Presidents and have announced you in terms which I conclude will be satisfactory. Inasmuch as you have your time pretty nearly filled up for October and November, I have stressed Mrs. McClung. We will take the last week in October, or rather the week which is partly in October and partly in November. It begins October 30th and ends November 4th. It just precedes the election. We will want one Sunday and perhaps both the 29th and the 5th of November. Perhaps Mrs. Yost will decide if these shall be single meetings. Perhaps she will accept the plan of the "Flying Squadron". I hope she will. I want also to suggest that New York will take the "Flying Squadron" for the big cities for some time in November. If you can give a week to New York, then it would make everybody happy. I think you are right that the Southern Conferences should come in the winter, and we will remember to put them after January 20th. I am sorry we cannot have Mrs. McClung for those meetings too, but our own people ought to be sufficient. Cordially yours, CCC-S President July 24, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Penn. My dear Miss Shaw: There is a matter which I meant to call to your attention a long time ago. It seems that Marion May who you know has been made Chairman of the Suffrage Committee of the National Council of Women (of course, she is body and soul a Congressional Unionite) on June 26th wrote to inquire what member of our organization would represent us at the meetings of the Council of Women. I replied that I had not been informed of any meeting. She replied that she would make answer when she had inquired. Apparently she was merely asking on general principles. As you have always been interested in the Council of Women and know its backgrounds, I think it would be extremely useful if you would permit us to appoint you as a regular delegate to all Council meetings. When notices of such meetings come we will turn them over to you and expect you to either attend yourself or notify us if you cannot do so. Will you let me know if this will be agreeable to you. I received your letter yesterday concerning the leaflet and thank you most cordially for your promptness. Sincerely yours, CCC-S President ------------------------------------- August 8th, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, C/O Mrs. George Howard Lewis, Geneva, New York. My dear Dr. Shaw: I have just now received a letter from Mrs. Weed, forwarded from Washington, where, apparently, it was kept for some days. I enclose a copy of Mrs. Weed's letter to me and a copy of my reply to her. Mrs. Weed will be sure to appear at the convention at Atlantic City or some of her friends and this question will be certain to give us no end of disagreeable trouble. It must be settled in some way. I am hoping that the minutes will give us the evidence we need. I am inclined to think that Mrs. Weed's imagination has somewhat changed the facts in the event. Will you be kind enough to tell us what really did take place so far as you can remember. If Mrs. Weed's statement is as she says, she is entitled to proof or the withdrawal of the charge and we must meet the situation for the sake of peace. I always meant to take this matter up with you when you were in New York but the matter escaped my mind. Cordially yours, President. P.S. After having dictated this letter, Miss Bates remembered that Mrs. Fitzgerald had sent some material to the office and upon making..... .....day previous, some questions were asked concerning the Congressional Union and there was apparently something of a discussion about it as several people are recorded as having said something or asked questions. No note is made of anything you said so there is no guide whatever in the minutes as to the first incident. September 26, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw: At the last meeting of the committee you said that you would go to West Virginia without charge and that you would order your expenses paid from the residue of the campaign fund which had been turned over to the treasury and on which you alone were to draw. I have asked Miss Bates to give me a statement of that campaign fund in order that we might know how much of it was in the general treasury. She has handed to me the enclosed statement. It announces that there is 54¢ left in the fund if she has handled the account correctly. I have asked her to add that 54¢ to the money now in the campaign fund and out of the campaign fund we will draw for your expenses. Apparently this closes up that campaign fund. Is this as you understand it? I thank you most cordially for the kind letter which I received concerning the convention and also for the promise to help in every way you can on the new constructive program. It was a question in the beginning as to whether we should devote our entire energies to the campaign states or try to eliminate from the National the spirit which was driving it to ruin. We attempted to do both. The states would not let us do any more than we did do but I am wondering whether it would not have been better if we had moved right out into Iowa and taken hold of the situation whether they liked us or did not like us. All of the organizers in South Dakota say that we could have won the state with a proper campaign, but the inefficiency is enough to make an angel weep. I have asked the officers of the headquarters' committee to meet today to vote out all the campaign money we have and when it is over, of course, you will get the full report. I thought you were going to be here soon but as you do not come we cannot wait any longer. I am leaving on Saturday but I am not going to stay very long as the office needs me. Miss Shuler is now here and Miss Patterson goes in two ... ------------------------------------------ September 29, 1916. Dr. Anna H. Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw: Many thanks for your two letters. I wish also to thank you for your kind offer to help in every way you possibly can with the constructive plan for the year. We have been so extremely busy in the office attending to the aftermath of the convention that it is difficult to get at the plans for the year. When I come back I am going to arrange the southern conferences the first thing, so we would like to know how much time you can give to those conferences. I think you said you would contribute some time to them. Is there any one time more favorable than another to you? We are going to try to have our first school in Richmond and there will be some other schools going on at the same time these conferences are in progress. We may want in some places to combine them in which case it might not be an easy matter to arrange any block of time without some rest. Concerning the headquarters' committee meetings, I fear you have a feeling in your mind that something unfair has been done since we did not notify you of the meeting. I would like to explain these meetings and to ask whether or not you agree to that understanding. I have, myself, considered the headquarters committee as composed of the five officers who reside and work in the headquarter. These meetings have been called sometimes every day for a week. Perhaps the meeting does not last longer than an hour or perhaps it sits for several hours. The matters which are brought before it are those which concern the management of the office, emergencies which have been brought to us through the mails and which demand immediate answer. These last are questions which a president or a corresponding secretary would under the circumstances answer herself, but as the officers are here I often call them in and we consult over it. Matter of policy are not brought before the headquarters' committee unless some questions of finance may be so considered. Sometimes we vote appropriations for emergency needs which were the whole Board here, it would be preferable to have their... Dr. Anna Howard Shaw -2- or three days. It is not easy to slip the load from one yoke into another. Most cordially yours, President D.D. Miss A. H. Shaw -2- entire consent. Before the convention we called you and Mrs. Roesssing, who were the two officers nearest, to these meetings and they took on an importance which the headquarters ' committee does not have. It will be difficult to notify you when these meetings are going to be held for the reason we often arrange one day to have one the next morning and when that time comes probably postpone it until the afternoon. They are necessarily very informal. If you would like to be notified when these are to be held, I will gladly do so but I would not like to be bound not to hold any meetings for which you were not notified, in view of the fact that there are times when a question arises upon which I like to have the judgement of the others, at which time I send someone through the office to summon the officers and we hold a consultation. We keep minutes of each meeting and regard it as a headquarters' committee meeting. I do not want any officer to feel that she is left out and that anything is going on that she does not know. Minutes are supposed to be sent to the absent officers and I presume all have been sent. The Severance release was sent some time ago but I suppose it crossed this letter of Mrs. Severance's en route. We will set her aright on our policy. Cordially yours, President P.S. I am enclosing a letter from Holyoke. Can you give these people a date and if so will you just take it up with them direct, saying that I have forwarded the letter to you so that they will know if has been acknowledged. If you cannot do it or do not want to do it, just return the letter. D.D. October 11, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Penna. My dear Dr. Shaw: You know that a part of our program for this year is a number of suffrage schools. We are trying to have two of these in November, in order to set the standard. They have been offered to Baltimore and Richmond and Baltimore has accepted. I have been anxious to try our one or two of these schools before making the whole schedule. I have thought that we might drop the conferences in the cities where the schools were held and hold the conferences in the cities where there will be no school. The speakers will in this way find a regular schedule without interfering with the school plans. Before the schedule for all of the South was worked out I was anxious to get through these schools in Virginia and Maryland. I suppose the conferences and other schools will take place the latter part of January and February. If you are in haste about the settlement of your time please say so and I will get at it at once. I beg a thousand pardons for not having informed you about the Flying Squadron. The Flying Squadron is off, but you are how, however, and Mrs. Yost is making the arrangements. West Virginia has cooked up a good idea of its own. It proposes to have a men's flying squadron, all from West Virginia. Whether you are to be attached to the men's squadron or to have separate meetings, I have not been informed. I do not ask them any unnecessary questions for I know how overwhelmed they are with work. You will remember we were authorized to offer Fords... ------------------------------ Oct. 10, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pa. My dear Dr. Shaw: You know it is part of our program to have suffrage schools. I have offered two of those schools before the Christmas holidays to Baltimore and Richmond. I want to sort of try the idea out before making the whole schedule. They are slow in determining what they are willing to do. I have thought that we would try the conference in connection with the school for these two places and see what it would come to. In the event that it worked out pretty well I thought we would conferences in the states where we did not have school. The conferences, however, will have to take place in the latter part of January and February. If you are in haste about the settlement of your time please say so and I will get it at once. I beg a thousand pardons for not having informed you about the Flying Squadron. The Flying Squadron is off, but you are on, however, and Mrs. Yost is making the arrangements. West Virginia has cooked up a good idea of its own. It proposes to have a men's Flying Squadron, all from West Virginia. Whether you are to be attached to the men's Squadron or to have separate meetings, I have not been informed. I do not ask them any unnecessary questions for I know how overwhelmed they are with the work. You will remember we were authorized to offer Fords or the squadron. They took one Ford and the circularization of Dr. Anna Howard Shaw -2- or the squadron. They took one Ford and the circularization of one hundred thousand voters. They write that things are looking up. I note you say you wish you could go with hope. I do not think it is safe to get one's expectations up to too high a standard lest they come down with a crash upon the "hoper". I know that if we keep firing into the air we are bound to hit something, some time, somewhere, and that something may be West Virginia. I asked Miss Meyer if she could let us know when she would return to Washington and we would try to have a headquarters meeting as she went through. She writes she would like to have that meeting on Saturday afternoon, at the 14th, at 3:30, but alas, I have not seen a sign of Mrs. Rogers or Mrs. McCormick for days and Miss Ogden says that is too much for her. I have written Miss Meyer asking if she can postpone her going until the 16th. Where will you be then? The subject to be brought up is Washington headquarters. They may have sent me estimates of places there, but none of them are very satisfactory. Of course I will have to go down there myself and look things over, but a discussion of what will be well for us to do will be necessary. Most cordially yours, President CCC/T October 13, 1916. Miss Anna Howard Shaw, Moylan, Pennsylvania. My dear Miss Shaw: Your letter crossed mine; I had already written you that we should probably arrange a meeting for the 16th. Miss Meyer has now requested that it take place at 4 o'clock, Monday afternoon. That will be a very brief meeting, as you may imagine. There are some small matters - mere odds and ends - which we can settle, but we shall discuss the question of the Washington headquarters as I previously wrote you. To answer your question about the next Board Meeting, let me say that I am not quite clear whether you mean the kind of meetings we held last year, that is, headquarters' committee meeting with such members of the Board as can be brought together, or a full Board Meeting. I have given no thought to the date of a full Board Meeting. There are several other things which I should like cleared up before a full Board Meeting is held, otherwise such a meeting would be of little value. I will bear in mind your suggestion that a meeting might be held on Election Day and will see if I can get the others together for that day. If I can, I will notify you. Mrs. Miller will probably be in New York by that time. I note you say it is well we have visited so many conventions. We really have touched very few. Things are looking up in South Dakota. Perhaps it is because it is so far away that things seem more encouraging. The men are organizing to help. If they are as ineffective as they have been in most states, it may not count for much, but they did help so splendidly in Iowa that I am hoping So the South Dakota men will to as well. I am convinced that the women in that DAK state would never get the vote unless the men bestir themselves and get it for them. Cordially yours, President D.D. October 13, 1916. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, c/o Mrs. Ellis A. Yost, Morgantown, West Virginia. My dear Miss Shaw:-- I hereby announce that a meeting of the full board of officers of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, will be held in New York at the headquarters on November 7th and 8th. The first session will be called at 10 A.M. We shall arrange to lunch at the Woman Suffrage Party headquarters on both days. Yours cordially, CCC-BMS President. October 18, 1916. Miss Anna H. Shaw, Moylan, Pa. My dear Miss Shaw: Our letters have a way of crossing each other. You have already been notified that a full Board Meeting will be held at the headquarters on November 7th and 8th. The first session will be held as soon as we can get together on the morning of the 7th. We called it on that day because you so suggested. I am sending this note to Moylan where I note you will be on the night of the 20th. We are doing the best we can at this end to counteract all the numerous tricks the antis put over on West Virginia and South Dakota and it is keeping us pretty busy. Miss Meyer was here for a couple of yours on the 16th and we discussed the question of headquarters in Washington. There was no intention of making a final settlement on that occasion. We shall try to get the information necessary so that we can make the decision on the 7th of November. Cordially yours, D.D. President October 23, 1916. Dr. Anna H. Shaw, c/o Mrs. Thomas Peadro, Parkersburg, West Virginia. My dear Miss Shaw: We are having rather a sad time in placing Mrs. McClung just before election. Of course the political meetings take up the time and audiences. So we are planning a small luncheon for her on November 3d. You had said in a former letter that you might come to New York about November 1st, but had not in that letter stated why. We therefore took the liberty to put your name on the program. Our plan is to have a small luncheon - not more than a hundred. I will preside and we will ask Mrs. McClung to speak about twenty minutes and you about ten minutes - that will be all. The Equal Suffrage League - Miss Hay - is scheduled for that date and they offered to give a tea for Mrs. McClung, but we thought we would rather have a luncheon. She will put her meeting a little later and she wishes to make it a sort of reception to those National officers who are in the city. She is of course particularly anxious to have you speak. We want you to speak last at the luncheon but we have ambitions to close that luncheon by half past three. Miss Hay wants very much to have you as her first speaker. The luncheon is at the McAlpin; the Equal Suffrage League at the Astor. They will provide a rapid transit to get you there, and the rest of us will follow when we can. I am inviting Mrs. McClung to be my guest for the two days she will be in New York, and I would like now to ask you to come home with us for dinner after these two functions. I will see that you get back to the McAlpin or wherever you may be staying. Dr. A. H. Shaw -2- I think we shall be lucky if we get off without misquotations about partisanship in this campaign. Mrs. Meredith had written me the same kind of an appeal and as a result I wrote her a statement which I said they could use if they wanted to, but I wrote it with great care so that it could not be misconstrued. I note that Senator Smoot says that Wilson has put the suffrage back twenty-five years and Ellis Meredith says that the Woman's Party has put it back fifty years. That makes about seventy-five. We might as well take it easy. I return herewith the clipping from the Ledger which you ask to have returned. It is very clearly stated and certainly represents our policy. The one thing I wish we could do but do not seem able to accomplish and that is that we might make our own position clear without having to mention the Woman's Party. I do not like the idea of thumping another woman's organization or emphasizing the fact that there is a difference of opinion among us. I do not think that it would have been wise to have gone into the suffrage states to talk non-partisanship during the election campaign because it would have been construed as working for Mr. Wilson and opposing Mr. Hughes no matter what we might have done. The mistake that we made is that we didn't get the Congressional Conferences held in the suffrage states at the time we had them scheduled. I would have gone ahead with them but for the Iowa campaign. I regret very much that they were not held. They would at least have given some people a clear understanding and they would have been ready to defend non-partisanship with more intelligence, perhaps, than they now possess. Cordially yours, President D.D. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.