NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE LAidlAw, HArriet B. July 6 1944 Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw "Hazeldean" Sands Point, Port Washington New York Tel. Port Washington 1075 Dearest Mrs. Catt: You and Mary [Fry Peck?] are a fascinating combination! I have just finished the Works. Your life and her sparkling presentation, earnest dignified with those individual [?] of humor make a wonderful book. Even if I were not so intensely interested, I would have enjoyed the book. But as it is I hung on every word! It is a great noble life, - directed by one of the fairest human minds that has ever come to earth. I note the picture of Jim and one of me. What memories it all recalls. I am writing to Mary T.P. too She has done such a strong yet graceful piece of work Louise reads it of course with intense interest. I love the human bits like that about your "elaborate" dinners Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw "Hazeldean" Sands Point, Port Washington New York Tel. Port Washington 1075 Also I never quite got so vividly the story of Tennessee! - What a campaign. - And you are still going strong. You are an inspiration to my 70 years. When I think it is time for this old "war horse" to lie down. Bless you ever. Some time you must write in my precious book Ever devotedly and admiringly Harriet BL. Harriet B. Laidlaw. In 1911, I received my A. M. degree from Brown University and quit the academic field to enter that of social and political service for so I regarded working for women suffrage. Our household was running smoothly requiring but a small part of my time and attention. While we have from the time of our marriage in 1907 had a fairly large and attractive home, we have run it simply without undue labor. I find that women who give too much energy to their household soon have none to give elsewhere; indeed are likely to come to the place where they have nothing for their home. Housework and bridge carried to excess can prove deadly opiates to the feminine intellect. Especially is it necessary to seek life outside when there are no children to bring it into the home. My advice to young women is to cultivate some hobby before marriage of sufficient importance to keep up after marriage in case "hubby" should not prove quite sufficient to occupy every waking moment. One of my neighbors on Angell Street was a soloist in one of the large New York churches before her marriage. When I asked her why she had given up her music afterward she replied "Because I was a fool." In connection with housekeeping the advice of Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw recurs to me. It was to see that the grocer, the baker, the butcher, the laundry man, and all others who have taken over the work of the modern household do their job properly. If they fail in the tasks voluntarily assumed by them, get others who will not fail. In looking over my guest-book, I find that we had many charming guests during this period of our married life. If the spirit moved them they were asked to insert with their names a poem, sketch, or what-not. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Taylor Head- [??]nd of Peking, China, spent two weeks with us. We had many pleasant chats about our cozy fireplace exchanging stories on the Empress Dowager and the wrongs of women. They left this tiny verse as their contribution to my guest-book: The best thing in life Say some is a wife and daughters and sons, say some But to me the best -- It includes the rest -- The best thing in life is a Home. File Telephone Plaza 707 6 East 66th Street Dear Miss Blackwell: What do you think of me, acknowledging Christmas remembrances the last of January! It is partly that you were left among the last because I didn't want to send you just a card, but in the midst of the indecent press of work lately I've wanted to get time to write you a note and thank you particularly for your sweet Xmas card, and, what, fortunately is not too late to wish you a very happy new year. You have dealt with the anti's rigorously and well of late - the Journal. I have pirated some of your good stuff for speeches. I'm sure you dont mind, I suppose you are being quoted in thousands of speeches all over the land. Yours with warm regard Harriet B. Laidlaw . [*L*] Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw Hazeldean, Sands Point Port Washington, Long Island Port Washington 1075 Dear Alice Stone Blackwell: Thank you for sending me the really thrilling clippings about your much deserved prized award. I wish I had been there to see Mrs. Glendower-Evans pin the badge upon you. I am sorry that for the cause of Madam Catharine I can send you such a small amount, but you have struck me at a bad time indeed. [*L*] Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw Hazeldean, Sands Point Port Washington, Long Island Port Washington 1075 I have tried to keep up my contributions during these difficult times, but I have had to give extra help to so many organizations where I am on the Board of Directors, besides helping needy friends, relatives and struggling students, with a very much diminished income myself. My secretary, in making up my income tax, called my attention to the fact that I had given to more than 300 organizations, - giving away more than 35% of my total Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw Hazeldean, Sands Point Port Washington, Long Island Port Washington 1075 income. I am telling you this to show you that even though I enclose only $5.00, it is not because of any lack of interest in Madame Catharine, but simply that I am forced to cut down in every direction. Yours ever with warm regard Harriet B. Laidlaw June 20. 1934. Mrs James Lees Laidlaw Tel. 225 J Port Washington Hazeldean Sands Point Port Washington, L.I. Town 60 E. 66 St. NY City Dearie Miss Blackwell; What a dear Easter greeting! - I cannot tell you how much I'd love to see you! Do let me know if you come to N.Y. - I am Sick about the League of woman voters at DesMoines. - I think they have not only failed to meet their responsibility, but they have betrayed a trust just now where they could have helped most, moreover women who are members feel that the normal free sentiment of the League - countrywide has not been expressed by a little group at DesMoines[?] dominated for the moment by partisan Republican politicians and German[?] Americans who put its German first. (And not to the good of their country which needs an enlightened vision and is begging in intellectual circles to pray to be delivered from [their] its friends.) Yours with affectionate greeting in which Louis[?] & Mr. Laidlawy from me, Harriet B. Laidlaw [*H B Laidlaw*] Miss Mary Garrett Hay, Chairman Mrs. Martha Wentworth Suffren, Vice-Chairman Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Honorary Chairman Mrs. Thos. B. Wells, Secretary Mrs. Margaret Chanler Aldrich, Treasurer WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK A Union for Political Work of Existing Equal Suffrage Organizations HEADQUARTERS 48 EAST 34TH STREET Two Doors From Madison Avenue Telephone 6310 6311 Murray Hill BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, Chairman 6 East 66th Street Mrs. Frederick C. Howe, Director 31 West 12th Street Mrs. Robert Adamson, Vice-Chairman, North 215 West 101st Street Mrs. J. Frederic Gillette, Vice-Chairman, Central 222 East 17th Street Miss Lavinia L. Dock, Vice-Chairman, South 265 Henry Street Miss Cora Van Norden, Recording Secretary 8 East 62nd Street Mrs. Frederick Nathan, Corresponding Secretary 162 West 86th Street Mrs. Alvah Doty, Treasurer 205 West 57th Street Bronx Borough Mrs. John Jay McKelvey, Chairman Brooklyn Borough Mrs. Edward H. Dreier, Chairman Queens Borough Mrs. Alfred J. Eno, Chairman Richmond Borough Mrs. William G. Willcox, Chairman Office Days at Headquarters for the Borough of Manhattan Tuesdays and Fridays, 10 A. M. to 4.30 P. M. [*FILE*] New York, March 9, 1914. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 3 Monadnock Street, Dorchester, Mass My dear Miss Blackwell: Thank you for your letter today . I really did not expect you to publish what I sent you, only I thought you would be interested to have a copy of Mrs. Dodge's quite unparalleled letter in the Anaconda Standard, and my analysis of that letter I based on the facts which I gathered first-hand out in Montana. I have a carbon copy of the letter, and if at any time you should wish it for reference for anything that you are writing on the subject, I should be glad to send it to you again. I have just had a very enthusiastic letter from Nevada at the close of their successful state convention. I suppose you also have heard from Miss Martin and Miss Rankin about how much they are doing. With best wishes, Yours cordially, Harriet B. Laidlaw. Chairman Manhattan Borough. HBL:EB [*5¢*] ORGANIZING TO WIN BY THE POLITICAL DISTRICT PLAN A HANDBOOK FOR WORKING SUFFRAGISTS Compiled by H. B. LAIDLAW July, 1914. NATIONAL WOMAN SUFFRAGE PUBLISHING CO., Inc. Publishers for the NATIONAL AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION 505 Fifth Avenue New York City 277 TRADES COUNCIL UNION LABEL ORGANIZING TO WIN BY THE POLITICAL DISTRICT PLAN The following plan of organization was worked out and first applied by the Woman Suffrage Party of New York City, and while the term "Woman Suffrage Party" is used throughout this pamphlet, it can be equally well adopted by any association under its existing name or under any new name. This form of organization had spread all over the United States. As long as we are endeavoring to attain suffrage state by state, through amendments to the constitutions of the various states, and as long as the members of the State Legislatures alone have the power to place the amendment definitely before the whole body of the voters, just so long must those political units which send men to the Legislatures be our primary concern. In work for the Federal amendment the congressional units are important. But ever the assembly district stands pre-eminent in the life of the state. These political units are the "Senatorial District" from which the members of the Senate or the Upper House of the State Legislatures are drawn, and the "Assembly" or "Legislative District" or "Ward," from which are drawn the members of the Lower House of the State Legislatures. This Lower House and its members are variously named in the different states. For convenience, we shall use the name "Assembly" and "Assembly District" through this pamphlet. The basis of the Woman Suffrage Part organization is the Assembly District. We do not deal especially with the Senatorial District, for the reason that the several Assembly Districts (generally three) which make up a Senatorial District can always combine to bring pressure to bear upon the State Senator through every Woman Suffrage Party agency that is employed in the case of the Assemblyman. The aim of the Woman Suffrage Party is to focus all the existing suffrage work directly upon these political representatives of the people to the end that they may be induced to work for the suffrage bill once it has been introduced into the Legislature. In structure, the Party is like a great pyramid tapering upward from the enrolled membership throughout the entire city, which forms its base, through the Captains and the Leaders of the various Assembly Districts, to the Chairman of the city or state organization at the apex. This plan of work did not originate with suffragists. It was merely appropriated by them. It is a plan which voters have evolved after a century of political experience. Under test, it has been found to be the most effective possible organization, and should, therefore, prove correspondingly effective to suffragists in their work of preparation for a suffrage campaign. Collectively the Party can undertake as bold and picturesque work as any organization, but, in addition, this careful, undeviating, systematic political organization work must be constantly carried on by the central Chairmen, the Leaders of the Assembly Districts and the Captains of the various Election Precincts within the Assembly Districts. 2 The Pary work not only intensifies the suffrage comradeship, but gives a pride in local achievement and a strong neighborhood feeling that, in a great city, is most salutary. It is accompanied inevitably by an awakening of civic pride, and a wholesome breaking down of class distinctions as women, of the same neighborhood but of widely different training and mode of life, are thus brought together for a common cause. PLAN FOR A WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY IN ANY STATE The following program is offered as an outline of procedure, subject always to such modifications as will enable the Woman Suffrage Party to copy more closely the methods of organization followed by the majority political parties of the State in which it is formed. Program of Work 1st Step.--The appointment of an Organizer for each Assembly District, or whatever may be the name of that geographical division that sends an Assemblyman or Representative to the State Legislature. This Organizer need not be a resident of the District which she is to organize. The personnel of these appointees may be furnished from among the existing suffrage clubs. 2d Step.--The provision of a large amount of "Rainbow Literature," and of enrollment blanks. The money for this purpose may well be supplied by the existing suffrage clubs. 3d Step.--The calling by each Organizer of a local convention in the District which she is organizing composed of all the known suffragists, both men and women, who reside in her District. For this purpose, the boundary lines of the District must be studied and all names set into the proper District according to residence. A convention should be called even if only a few persons known to be suffragists. The object is to make a start. At this convention a District Leader must be chosen who resides in the District and who will be known as the Leader for the District of the Woman Suffrage Party. Also, an attempt must be made to secure as many persons as possible who will act as Captains of the Election Precincts to serve under the Leader. Further, the best plan of raising money to carry on the Woman Suffrage Party work should be determined upon. 4th Step.--As soon as possible, the Assembly District Leader should call her Captains together to consult as to the best way in which to proceed to cover the work in hand. This is to enroll every man and woman in the District as a member of the Party by signing an enrollment blank. She should tell them the exact boundaries of their Precincts, give them a full supply of "Rainbow Literature," enrollment blanks, and if possible, lists of names of residents, voters' lists (to be obtained from the City Record or the Board of Elections), church lists, etc., to aid them in their work. She should fill them with enthusiasm, suggesting various methods of getting the registration, such as house-to-house canvass, small parlor meetings, big public assemblages, sociables, suffrage teas, dissemination of literature by hand or by mail, persuasive argument, outdoor speaking, debates, etc. Upon the enthusiasm of the Leader and the diligent work of the Captain depends everything. 5th Step.--The Assembly District Leader should endeavor as early as possible to form a District Club, with dues, composed of all those who are willing to pay dues and direct the activities of the District work. The Leader may or may not be the President. The Captains may belong to this Club, as well as anyone who is desirous of taking a more active part than that of an enrolled member merely. The 3 financial burden of the work must be solved by the Club, and it should be the center of activity for the District. There should be a Secretary and Treasurer, officers to be elected annually. The Club should meet at least once a month. 6th Step.—The extension of the Woman Suffrage Party over the entire State, conventions of Leaders being called to elect a County Committee (if there is more than one District in the County) and a State Committee. These conventions should be called once a year, with duly elected delegates; and the procedure should follow as closely as possible the political organizations of the men. 7th Step.— Put the full force of your membership behind your Assemblyman or Representative in the Legislature, and compel him to favor the Woman Suffrage Bill. Do the same thing in regard to your Senator. Remarks.—Where a State has already existing clubs, they usually take the lead in forming a Woman Suffrage Party; where there are none, a volunteer band of organizers may follow the same general line of procedure. Maps showing the boundaries of the Districts and Precincts may usually be secured from the headquarters of the political parties. Each Election Precinct Captain should keep a copy of the signatures she gets, but should send the enrollments themselves to her Leader. As soon as possible a County Headquarters should be established, and full lists of the enrolled membership kept there. When in doubt how to proceed, follow as closely as possible the methods of organization employed by the political parties in your State. THE ACTIVITIES OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY For quick reference as practical guide, the activities of the Woman Suffrage Party are here set forth from five different sides: 1. Political. 2. Legislative. 3. Propaganda 4. Education for civic life. 5. Reform. Political Work First and foremost, as its form indicates, the work of the Woman Suffrage Party is Political. It endeavors to walk step by step parallel with the legitimate activities of the dominant political parties. At every political meeting, and in every political committee, the Woman Suffrage Party's voice must be heard in undeviating demand for the submission of the woman suffrage amendment to the voters. It must be impressed upon the minds of all citizens in political life that the members of the Woman Suffrage Party intend to pursue an unswerving course side by side with the men of the dominant parties from whom their enfranchisement in any State must come. Wherever the men are meeting, making platforms, considering candidates for the State Legislature, passing resolutions, or holding primaries or conventions, the Woman Suffrage Party officers and members should be with the insistent and persistent demand that they express themselves in some way upon the suffrage question, that they shall send men to the State Legislature who are pledged to submit the suffrage amendment to the voters of the State, whether the Legislator believes in suffrage or not. It is necessary to follow the political routine from designation meetings and primaries to State Conventions. 4 1. Party officers should find the headquarters of the County and State committees for dominant parties. A friendly acquaintance, if possible, should be established between officers and members of these political committees and officers and members of the Woman Suffrage Party. Much important information can be obtained at these headquarters during the summer. Get from the State headquarters the political calendar for the year. This is generally a printed folder. Supply Assembly District Leaders wth copies of the political calendar. Also locate the board of elections. There one may get complete lists, name and addresses of all candidates for the Legislature. Leaders get these names, of course, in their own districts, but a complete list should be on hand at headquarters. 2. Party officers should in every possible way acquaint themselves with the State and local political situation. 3. The Woman Suffrage Party Assembly District Leader should become acquainted with the political party leaders of her District. She should know the location and the officers of all political clubs, and get admission to the clubs for suffrage speakers. 4. The Leader should learn as far as possible her district politics. 5. The Election District Captain should become acquainted with the political captains of her Election District. 6. Suffrage Leader, Captains and all District officers should become acquainted with their Senator and Assemblyman, follow his legislative activities closely and let him be keenly aware of their activities for suffrage. It is a part of the district routine to send notices of meetings, invitations to speak, subscriptions to suffrage magazines, to all district men of prominence. The suffrage sentiment of his District must be impressed upon him at its highest value. No suffrage influence should be lost to the Legislators and politicians of an Assembly District. They should be fully conscious that it is the most agitated, the most vital question that they will hear from during the legislative session. 7. On the day of the primary or designation meetings, a delegation of two to four women from every Assembly District should seek a hearing, if only for five minutes, asking: (a) For the nomination or designation of a candidate who believes in the submission of the Woman Suffrage amendment. (b) For the passage of a resolution favoring the submission of the Woman Suffrage amendment. 8. Before nominating conventions the same course should be pursued. If suffrage representatives cannot get a hearing, they can distribute appeals within the hall. This being denied, they can stand outside and distribute appeals. (See Appendix I and II.) This applies to the Senatorial conventions. The Leaders of the Districts that make up a Senatorial District should unite on this. 9. The year of the general State elections the Party should follow out the routine for the State conventions and a hearing before the Resolutions Committee asking for a suffrage plank in their platform. (See Appendix III.) In a presidential year the same action should be taken with reference to delegates to the State convention asking them to advocate a plank in the National platform as a recommendation from their State. (See Appendix IV.) 5 10. Immediately after the candidates for Senate and Assembly (or House of Representatives) have been nominated, begin a systematic interviewing and if possible a pledging of the candidates on the suffrage question. (See Appendix V and VI.) 11. If the organization decides to campaign against a particularly refractory candidate, they should consider: (a) Whether the District is a close one or whether there is a chance of success. (b) Whether the opposing candidate is sincerely for the submission of the question. (c) The past legislative record of the candidate to be fought. (Methods and plans for an aggressive campaign are treated in another leaflet.) 12. The Woman Suffrage Party should never work for a candidate nor ally itself with any political party or organization. 13. After election, one of the first things the new Senator and the new Assemblyman or Representative should hear is the Woman Suffrage question. By simultaneous onslaught upon the conventions or designation meetings of every Assembly District, the undeviating presence of the suffrage advocates at every step in the political routine, he should already have realized that he cannot escape the suffrage demand. Between election and the convening of the Legislature, each Legislator for the State should be tabulated as to his position on submitting the amendment. Nothing should satisfy suffrage workers as a culmination to their Political work short of a Legislature, a majority of whose members are pledged to the submission of the Woman Suffrage Amendment. Legislative Work In every case, except through a constitutional revision or an initiative petition, an amendment must pass the State Legislature (or sometimes two successive Legislatures), before it can be referred to the voters. Therefore, in nearly every case one of the great fights in our war is to get the bill safely through and out of the Legislature. 1. Form a co-operating legislative committee, composed of heads of all organizations in the State, of which the Woman Suffrage Party Chairman or the State President is Chairman. This committee should meet immediately after election, and thereafter once a week or once in two weeks throughout the winter. 2. Decide upon the form of amendment or suffrage bill. 3. Select a Senator to introduce the bill in the State Senate and an Assemblyman or Representative to introduce it into the Assembly or House or Representatives. If necessary, do some work in the man's own District to show him that there is a strong enough sentiment among his constituents to warrant his championship of the bill. If there is a Men's League in the state, district the members and ask them to call upon, write to and petition their legislators. (See Appendix VII.) 4. Have a legislative agent, some earnest woman, continually at the State Capitol in friendly relations with the introducers of the bill. She should be a student of the political combinations and of the whole legislative procedure, ever pushing the claims of the suffragists, interviewing Assemblymen, sending timely word to Suffrage Party leaders in this and that Assembly District regarding work that needs to be done in a legislative crisis. Here is where the strength of a Woman Suffrage Party organization is shown. Word is sent into a District, 6 "Your Assemblyman says he does not believe there is much demand in his District." Forthwith he receives a list of the enrolled members, he is showered with letters and telegrams from his own constituents. Many may come to the State Capitol to see him. 5. Urge an early and timely introduction of the bill. 6. After the first reading of the bill, it is referred to a committee. Since this is, in so many States called the Judiciary Committee, we will use that name here. This is where in most instances the suffrage bills quietly die. The Suffrage Party proposes the bill shall not so die, and that if it does, it shall not die quietly. At this step in the legislative routine, there is one clear-cut piece of work: - To get the suffrage bill out of the committee. (a) To this end get a hearing before the Judiciary Committees, joint or separate. (b) Try to get a vote immediately or soon after the hearing. (c) Demand a report favorable or unfavorable. The latter at least gets it before the House for a discussion and gets that vote, so important to the suffragists of a State, which enables them to see where the Legislators stand. (d) If the bill is not reported out in reasonable time, interview the members of the Committee. (e) Begin an aggressive campaign through the press by street meetings, by the rolling up of a petition signed preferably by the voters of the Committeeman's district asking that he vote to report the bill out of Committee. Here, Assembly District organization is invaluable. Canvass the District from the voters' lists obtained from the Board of Elections. Hold mass meetings in the District and always pass resolutions on the submission of the Woman Suffrage amendment and mail them immediately to the Legislator. (See Appendix VIII.) Have prominent people in the district write to him. (See Appendix IX.) The Woman Suffrage Party Leader should keep in touch with the political party leaders of her District during this time. The courtesy of the political headquarters for suffrage meetings may often he obtained at this time and such meetings are very effective. 7. If the Committee remains obdurate, get the introducer of the bill "To move the discharge of the Committee from further consideration of the Woman Suffrage bill." This means a close and careful polling of the members of the Legislature to get votes for the discharge. 8. Where the bill is triumphantly out of the Committee, let the Party or Co-operative Committee workers realize that "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty!" See that it is advantageously placed upon the calendar for its second reading. Poll the Legislature again. Be as active as possible in the men's districts. This is the height of the season's work. Hold a chain of legislative mass meetings. In many cases have the Legislators themselves speak. When the day comes for the second reading have deputations from throughout the State, ideally from each Assembly District, the Leader, and two or three Captains on the floor of the House or in their gallery. A parade in the Capitol City is a good idea. Demonstrations at this time need be limited by nothing but money and workers. A whirlwind suffrage week in the Capitol City is effective. Never forget work at home in the Assembly Districts of doubtful or adverse men. 9. When the bill has been passed through the second reading, dilatory tactics are often used by those corrupt politicians who are opposing the passage of the Woman Suffrage bill with that desperate eagerness that constitutes the highest tribute to and the best argument for Woman Suffrage. 7 10. The next step is for placing the bill on the calendar for the final reading and successful passage. One political trick to block the suffragists is to refer the bill at last to a Committee, often the Committee on Rules. Then the suffragists must fight strenuously to the last ditch. Again they must begin the routine, send out circulars, hold meetings, and besiege the members of this Committee to report the bill out for final passage. (See Appendix X) 11. In the meanwhile on the eve of success, the Governor and his signature should be assured. (Not in all States) 12. In some States this entire program must be carried out in two successive Legislatures. We do not in this pamphlet attempt to cover the procedure of the final campaign in the State where the amendment has been submitted; but from past experience and by evident deduction any suffrage worker can see that in proportion as the State is covered by a Woman Suffrage Party district organization, in that proportion a successful campaign is certain. Propaganda All our technical, political and legislative work will profit us little unless we are at the same time preparing the minds of the people for this great reform. The means by which the Suffrage message can be conveyed are innumerable, from toy "Votes for Women" balloons to magnificent banners; from Suffrage Party enrollment blanks and brown paper grocery bags to artistic booklets; from street meetings to parades. The resourceful worker, the Publicity and Public Demonstration and Entertainment Committees of a district will devise a thousand ways of appealing locally and generally to the heart and mind of the unconvinced, and of getting the message of equal suffrage to those who would never come to us in a regular suffrage meeting. 1. The hard but fruitful way is through the work of the Election District Captain in her house to house canvassing. She will speak to and leave literature with all the tradespeople, all the apartment house janitors. She will call, call, call on all the people in her District, convincing them by personal discussion and influence, and enrolling them in the District organization. (See Appendix XI.) The Party should furnish her with the "Rainbow Literature" to distribute freely. These may be secured from the National Woman Suffrage Co., Inc. 2. The Election District Captains and Party workers should hold parlor and shop neighborhood meeting; they should appear before locals of the unions, men's clubs, political and social groups; they should penetrate into slot machine and moving picture places. They should wear the suffrage button always, that the whole neighborhood will know what they stand for. 3. The Leader should work up a large body of Captains and call Captains' meetings as often as once a month to get their reports and in every way to stimulate the district work. 4. Two or three times during the year there should be a great District mass meeting. 5. Street meetings should be held frequently at the various corners and squares of the District. 6. The politicians, leaders and Legislators of Assembly Districts should be notified of and invited to District activities. While the propaganda work goes on not one motion the suffragists make should be lost politically. (See Appendix XII.) 8 7. It is well to have a leaflet on District activities to give to new recruits who want to do home work in their Districts. (See Appendix XIII and XIV.) 8. Suffrage plays written and acted by members of the District Dramatic Committee have been a source of revenue and of propaganda. 9. Assembly District headquarters as a center for the District Suffrage Club are a wonderful help in strengthening the work and in gathering in recruits. The working up of the Assembly District Club with a dues-paying basis from the Captains and active workers and the non-dues-paying enrollments, is a department of Party activity that requires a pamphlet by itself. 10. Different Districts lend themselves to various forms of propaganda. A sewing circle where women come with sewing and mending, while a suffrage book is read and District plans discussed, has been utilized in home Districts. 11. District fairs, District dances, District classes of different kinds have been used for converting and strengthening the District organization. 12. The social settlement for suffrage centers, the suffrage lunch and tea room, the suffrage gift shop, sales of "votes for women" candy and other articles, "votes for women" flower shows, "votes for women" dog shows and cat shows, and District sleigh-rides, are all methods which an alert District worker has used to raise money, increase members, and carry on propaganda. 13. The political reception is a valuable feature of District life. A Leader with her District officers and her Captains has given with great success a reception afternoon or evening and invited all the Legislators of her District. 14. The Flying Squadron of automobiles, or workers on foot with flags and regalia, is a method of stimulating weak districts. The free lances or minute women of the Party, who are not over-burdened with official work, should be organized to go into different districts to do intensive work for a day or a week, covering the district with canvassing, parades, street meetings, etc. 15. Besides all the splendid effective localized activity of the Party which is its basic power, the Central Committee should conceive and carry out plans of an aggressive and dignified character on a larger scale. The great annual city convention of the Party is not only for the adoption of a Party platform and declaring the election of officers, but for presenting to the public a brilliant programme calculated to win converts. (See Appendix XV.) 16. On all special occasions, as in time of rejoicing over a suffrage victory, at a legislative crisis, for protest or for jubilation, the Party as a whole should hold great mass meetings. 17. Theatrical benefits are a source of propaganda and revenue. However, for the latter it must be said that not much time and strength should have to go into entertainments for revenue. The Party must always be supported mainly by general contributions and pledges, obtained at big mass meetings. 18. The Party should make the most of all opportunities for unusual demonstrations. In a broad spirit of service for the cause, suffragists should remember that no time or place can detract from the dignity of the cause as long as the suffragist who represents it is dignified, gracious, tactful and earnest. A wonderful way to reach people is by maintaining a tent during the summer months at some popular resort near a city, a different Assembly District taking charge 9 each week. A lunch wagon can be hired and run by suffragists with great effect. Special holiday celebrations can be utilized, such as the decorating of the patriotic statues of a city. A picturesque parade and speeches the Fourth of July are effective. Places on programmes of other entertainments; booths at pure food, domestic science, governmental and industrial exhibitions; admission for propaganda work at fairs and benefits; an opportunity to take a place on the programme in a vaudeville house or run in lantern slides of suffrage cartoons or sentiments - all these opportunities should be used by the Party. 19. The Party demonstrations should as far as possible emphasize the Party organizations, banners, and badges of the Assembly Districts should show in living terms something of the scope and character of the Party 20. Any unusual occasion, a public celebration or event, a tragedy or a crisis, should be seized upon by suffragists, to drive home the suffrage lesson. 21. The procedure for press work requires a pamphlet by itself. There should be a press chairman and an active co-operating member in each assembly district. The full measure of publicity and propaganda accorded by the press depends much upon the resourcefulness, adroitness and general efficiency of the suffragists in "getting things over." Education for Civic Life The whole of the Party activity is a wonderful civic education. By making a Precinct Captain and her workers responsible for the few hundred people in an Election District or Precinct and then connecting her activity up to the great systematic organization of the Woman Suffrage Party, not only is the suffrage cause furthered but the workers are wonderfully trained. This sort of organization for team work and united effort is the genius of modern life. Until women, who from lack of training or experience are impatient of or awed by big combinations, are trained up to such standards of work, they cannot be vital factors in the world life of to-day. The patient, careful work which the organization requires is the best training in the world. 1. The Party worker must have some parliamentary knowledge. A class in parliamentary law has been run in some Party organizations. 2. The Woman Suffrage Party woman learns to be faithful to political meetings and to be conscientious about coming out to vote. Beginning with her own Assembly District conventions up to the city conventions she learns by practical experience the routine of electing officers and delegates. 3. On its political committees and its legislative committees Woman Suffrage Party workers learn the whole technique of government and of political methods. 4. This great volume of volunteer work develops a spirit of social service that is the basis of good citizenship. 5. Perhaps nothing in the Party movement is more remarkable than the education which the Party woman gets in real, not theoretical, democracy. Working side by side with Leaders and Captains from every section, color, race, creed, and conditions in a big city, she forgets the existence of class distinctions. 6. The speakers' classes, and still better, the experience in drawing room, hall, theatre and street corner, develops a large body of woman speakers. 10 7. Aside from the development of ability, the general ethical development of women who do this well-built, orderly, persistent, often inglorious work, is very remarkable. 8. A flaming demand for reform and readjustment is aroused in the women of the Party as they are called into close touch with every portion of our great cities, into intimate knowledge of police and political conditions and as they see the degradation and oppression of humanity, especially of childhood and womanhood. Reform It will always be a great question for organized suffragists to decide how far suffrage organizations shall take action upon reform matters. We are more or less solid on the subject of political partisanship. We know that the Woman Suffrage Party must keep free of all political alliances, as we must, as a non-partisan body, take our suffrage demand before committees, legislatures, and bodies of voters of all parties. But, when it comes to burning social questions, the very form of a Woman Suffrage Party platform (See Appendix XVI) shows that we cannot be oblivious of these vital things. It will take tact, courage, judgment, to decide how far to become allied with or to divert our activity toward other great movements. One thing must be remembered -- pounds of alleviation will not equal one ounce of the cure which comes with woman's enfranchisement. We are organized for the enfranchisement of women, and we find, because all these other things are of such burning moment to us, because we realize that mistakes are being made which carry tragedy in their tram, that we must all the more insist that we be armed with the one weapon known to modern governments, the ballot. However, certain recognition the Party must pay to existing struggles: 1. With social and reform bodies, affiliation is possible. 2. Resolutions and endorsements relative to many social matters are often imperative on the city committee of the Woman Suffrage Party. 3. The primary point at which we must vitally come in contact with reform conditions is in our relation to the labor world. The Party will naturally be in close sympathy with the Woman's Trade Union movement. 4. An important part of Party activity is a Wage-Earners' Suffrage League. (See Appendix XVII.) A labor chairman should be one of the many chairmen of standing committees on the city committee. She may, or may not, be president of the Wage-Earners' League. Besides their central activities, labor meetings, etc., the Wage-Earners' League members should be distributed and in touch with the District organization. 5. At least once during the year the Party should hold a great labor mass meeting, previous to which the Locals of all the Unions should have been visited with requests to send delegations. 6. The Party should participate in the Labor Day Parade, and other labor demonstrations. Fraternal greetings and fraternal delegates should be sent to great Women's Trade Union and Labor congresses and conventions. Resolutions of sympathy and endorsement are in order in connection with many events in the course of the struggle in the labor world. 7. Adoption of resolutions on various subjects of a social nature are in order to be sent to President, Governor, Mayor, Police Commissioner and other officials. 11 8. A Leader and her Captains have been known to wait upon the proper city authorities to demand better street conditions, the suppression of factory or smoke nuisances, police protection, etc. 9. Prison reform, abolition not regulation of the White Slave traffic, the struggle against child-labor, reform of criminal court procedure --concerning these the party will protest, pass resolutions, speak on the street corners, endorse organizations specially formed to cope with these matters; but no single-minded suffragist will be diverted by the individual instance, by even the most crying social defect, but will ever remember that causes and conditions are the foes that must be routed and that the one effective weapon is the ballot, and that the most effective way to gain the ballot is through Woman Suffrage Party organization. APPENDIX I FORM APPEAL TO NOMINATING CONVENTIONS To the Assembly District Nominating Conventions of .............. The Woman Suffrage Party, organized in the Assembly Districts of this State, and numbering more than .......... members, hereby appeals to you to nominate for the State Assembly a man who is favorable to the submission to popular vote of a constitutional amendment enfranchising women. We do not ask that your candidate be necessarily an advocate of woman suffrage, but we do ask that he shall be fair-minded enough to stand for a referendum on the question. To withhold such submission, as the Legislature has repeatedly done, is to arbitrarily usurp authority which clearly belongs to the electorate. Can not the voters of the State be trusted to express themselves on this measure? (Signed by the Officers of the Party.) II FORM FOR APPEAL TO DELEGATES OF ASSEMBLY DISTRICT CONVENTIONS To the Delegates of the Assembly District Conventions of ......... The Woman Suffrage Party, of .........., organized in ........... assembly district and numbering more than ..........members, hereby petitions you to instruct the delegates to your State Convention to use their influence and their votes to secure from that Convention a declaration in the party platform, in favor of submitting to popular vote a constitutional amendment providing for woman suffrage. The State Legislature, for incomprehensible reasons, refuses, year after year, to submit such an amendment. Having no power to extend the suffrage, the Legislature has no right to ignore the demands of the thousands of women who annually petition for consideration of this question. We appeal from this arbitrary and undemocratic action of the State Legislature to you, the voters who create that Legislature. We do not ask you or your party to endorse woman suffrage; we do ask you to endorse the principle involved in a referendum of this question to the sovereign voters of the State which is the method of extending the franchise clearly provided by the Constitution. (Signed by the Officers of the Party.) 12 III FORM FOR APPEAL TO STATE CONVENTIONS. To the Delegates to the Democratic State Convention, Place...................., Date.................... Gentlemen: What is this Convention going to do for the WOMEN of this State? ........ thousand women of .......... want an answer to this question. .......... thousand women ask you to vote a WOMAN SUFFRAGE PLANK INTO YOUR STATE PLATFORM. Does the Democratic Party stand for the RIGHTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL, as once it did? Does the expressed desire of ........ thousand citizens MEAN ANYTHING AT ALL to the Democratic Party? What is this DEMOCRACY that you seek to establish, which sees nothing wrong in levying Taxes upon AMERICAN WOMEN and then driving them away from the polls? Our ancient industries have been taken out of the home. Is the Democratic party willing to allow women to go out into the labor market to earn their bread, DEFENSELESS AND HELPLESS WITHOUT THE BALLOT? Is the Democratic party to keep on denying women a voice in making the laws under which they must live and at the same time continue to prate to the world about DEMOCRACY? Does success at the polls in November for the Democratic party mean a Legislature that will ROB WOMEN of a HARD-EARNED LEGISLATIVE VICTORY? Does success at the polls in November mean a Legislature that will deny the MEN of this State their RIGHT to vote upon the freedom of their women? Does Democratic rule in this State mean FREEDOM FOR MEN and POLITICAL SUBJECTION FOR WOMEN? Are these the conditions for which the party of Thomas Jefferson will stand during the next two years? To-day is a NEW DAY, and WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT DEMOCRATIC RULE MEANS. YOUR PLATFORM WILL TELL US, AND WE ARE WAITING. (Signed by the Officers of the Party.) To the Delegates to the Republican State Convention, Place .................., Date.................... Gentlemen: The Republican Party has learned the meaning of INSURGENCY. You are summoned to attend the most momentous convention in the history of the State organization. To-day is a new day, and new problems confront you. ........ thousand women are demanding the elective franchise; WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? WE ask you to vote a WOMAN SUFFRAGE PLANK INTO YOUR STATE PLATFORM. Will the party that freed the negro longer ignore the political slavery of women? Will it continue to allow AMERICAN WOMEN to be herded into line at the Tax Office, and then driven away from the polls? Does the expressed desire of one hundred thousand citizens MEAN ANYTHING to your leaders? Our ancient industries have been taken out of the home, and women by millions are following the work, going into the shop and the factory. Will the Republican party stand for an unfranchised and helpless LABORING CLASS? 13 Is a Republican victory at the polls in November to mean the DELIBERATE NON-RECOGNITION of woman's just claim to the ballot? Will the Republican party continue to deny women any voice in making the laws under which they must live, while boasting of REPUBLICAN INSTITUTIONS? Are the MEN OF THIS STATE to be free, while the WOMEN ARE KEPT in political subjection, under a Republican administration? Are these the conditions for which the Republican Party of this STATE will stand during the next two years? YOUR PLATFORM WILL TELL US, AND WE ARE WAITING. (Signed by the Officers of the Party.) IV FORM FOR APPEAL FOR PLANK IN NATIONAL PLATFORM To the Delegates of the State Convention. Greetings: The Woman Suffrage Party of ........................, organized in ...................... Assembly Districts, numbering more than ............ men and women, hereby appeals to you most earnestly to use your influence as a delegate to the .............. Convention to secure a recommendation from the State of ................ advocating a plank in the national platform in favor of Woman Suffrage. In asking this measure of justice to women we call your attention to the fact that in .......... states women already have the full franchise and that in .............. states the question goes to the voters for decision this Fall. In view of the world-wide growth of this movement and of its inevitable success we ask you to realize that the great .............. Party can no longer remain silent on issue of such magnitude, and we urge you to realize the wisdom of the statesmanship which dictates national recognition of the question immediately. (Signed by the Officers of the Party.) V FORM FOR SECURING PLEDGE OF CANDIDATES Hon. -------------- Dear Sir: I have noticed your nomination for a member of the Assembly (or Senate) for the ...... District on the ................ ticket. Will you kindly tell me, as a resident of your District, whether, if elected, you will favor submission to the voters of the question of woman suffrage as a constitutional amendment? Your support of such a resolution will not be taken to mean that you favor woman suffrage nor does it in any way bind you to vote for the same. I feel, however, that the question has become one of such general interest that an expression of the popular will should be obtained, and that it is manifestly unfair and un-American that the political liberties of half of our citizens should be denied by the will of an indifferent or adverse Legislature. I would be deeply grateful if you would advise me of your position in this matter. Respectfully yours, (Stamped and addressed envelope enclosed.) 14 VI FORM PLEDGE 1. I hereby give assurance, pledge, promise, that if I am on the Judiciary Committee of the Assembly in the State of ..............., I will do all in my power to have the bill reported our of Committee and will so vote. 2. That I will vote on the floor of the Assembly for submitting the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the voters of the State of .................. 3. That I will honestly endeavor to be present when such vote is taken. VII FORM FOR LETTER TO BE SENT TO MEN'S LEAGUES My dear Mr. ------------. We appeal to you as an enrolled member of the Men's League in the .......... Assembly District to send signed with your name and address and your Election District some such letter as the enclosed. Will you see Assemblyman ................ personally, if possible, and do work through any political situation that may be known to you in the district whereby you may bring influence to bear upon Mr. ................ in this matter? This is a very important office that you may perform for your sister suffragists at this time. Yours cordially, (Enclosed suggested form asking for the report out of committee, or the vote on the floor of the house.) VIII FORM FOR RESOLUTIONS TO BE SENT TO ASSEMBLYMEN (These resolutions should vary in form if you send them several consecutive weeks or months to your Legislature.) RESOLVED: That we, the residents of .............. Assembly District, in public meeting assembled, on this ........ of .........., 191 , do hereby request that our Assemblyman, the Hon. Mr. .................. respect our wishes and exert his utmost influence to have the bill providing for the submission of a suffrage amendment reported out of Committee and to have the question submitted to the voters. IX FORM FOR LETTER TO BE SENT TO ASSEMBLYMEN Honorable Mr. ................ (Assemblyman, Senator, or Representative). Dear Sir: As our Assemblyman (or Senator), we suffragists of the Woman Suffrage Party of the ............ Assembly District are looking to you to do justice to our cause this year, by doing everything that you can to see that the Woman Suffrage Amendment is reported out of Committee and on the floor of the House voted out to the voters of this State. We feel that there is no other one matter which is occupying the minds of so many people in your Assembly District as this one great subject, which is being agitated in every nation the world over. We are sure that we can trust this matter to you. Yours respectfully, 15 X FORM FOR LETTER TO GET BILL OUT OF COMMITTEE Co-operating Committee of Woman Suffrage Associations Dear ----------. On the ...... day of ............, in the Assembly, our bill passed by a vote of ........ to ........; a great victory for us. But our bill has now been referred to the Committee on Rules. We must, if possible, get it reported at once. The members of the committee are: (names and addresses). Please send a letter, or, better still, a telegram, addressed to any member of the committee or to the Rules Committee. Do it to-day! Send it not later than (date). We have a chance to win this year. It depends on you. Do your part! Do it now! Yours for victory, (Signed by Members of the Committee.) XI ENROLLMENT BLANK I, ........................ of ............ Street, ................ City, believing that women as well as men should vote, hereby join the Woman Suffrage Party, with the understanding that it is nonpartisan in character, and that this action does not interfere with my regular political affiliations. Assembly District .......... Election District .......... XII FORM FOR AN ORGANIZATION LEAFLET Things Necessary to do at Every Meeting, Large or Small, in the Assembly (or Representative) Districts or the Senatorial Districts 1. Give people who attend the meeting the name and address of their Senator and Assemblyman. It is preferable to have a number of typewritten slips bearing the names and addresses, and the appeal "Please help the cause of this district by pledging yourself to write to these two men." 2. Pass a resolution as strongly worded as possible which the Leader or the Secretary will send promptly to the Senator and the Assemblyman. 3. Call attention to the Party organ, if there is one. Urge subscriptions to it. Have copies at the meeting which people can see. 4. Always call attention to the district map, which it would be well to have pinned up back of the table at which the Leader presides. Many people have vague ideas when they hear talk about Assembly Districts and Election Districts. 5. Always have literature, buttons, pencils and pens at the meeting. You may appoint a committee to attend to these, but it is well for the Leader always to speak of these articles and their price. 6. Always take up a collection. If you only get $1.00, it will go toward defraying your postage expenses. 7. Always take enrollments. 16 8. Always speak of the plan of the Party organization. Emphasize its usefulness. Put up to the suffragists present the possibility of its efficiency and make a plea for captains. 9. Always call for reports of Captains and give some definite information to Captains. (The actual reports from captains refer more to your private business meetings than to your public meetings, although a plea for captains and an outline of the work of the captains should always be spoken of.) 10. At every meeting ask for volunteers for any kind of suffrage activities: Teas, At Homes, Entertainments, Flying Squadron, etc. People are better suffragists after they have done something--ever so little--for the cause. XIII FORM LEAFLET FOR DISTRICT WORKERS 1. Use the lists of those names that you already have at headquarters of people registered in the district. Call upon people who look as though they might be promising. 2. Get what enrollments you can from casual canvassing in the district shops, apartment houses, places of amusement, etc. Ask anyone who seems to be a hopeful person as a possible officer of the district to call at headquarters for further information. 3. Hold street meetings in the district, at which specially beg for workers. This applies especially to the warmer months in the year. 4. Look out for inexpensive meeting places in the district; vacant shops, club rooms, church houses, school rooms or tea rooms, or any private home that may be offered. 5. Use Dow's Directory or the Elite Directory, the Teachers' Directory or the Voters' list. All these give names consecutively by street and number and it is very easy to map our your district from these lists. (Emphasis should be made upon getting as many voters as possible in the district.) 6. Approach news-stands to see if you can get literature and enrollment banks sent into houses with newspapers. 7. Find out what you can do in amusement places, slot machine arcades, vaudeville houses, etc. Try to get our stereopticons run on in some variety performance in your district. Visit the shops, large and small, in your district. 8. Enroll men and women in department stores. 9. Get in touch with settlements, working girls' clubs and unions, and the Y. M. C. A.'s in your district. 10. Get lists from the Consumers' League, Trade Union League and the Women's Municipal League. 11. Always send notices of the meetings in the district to the Senator and Assemblyman and leading politicians. 12. SEE THE POLITICAL LEADERS IN THE DOMINANT PARTIES. Get on friendly terms with them and they will in many cases allow you to use their club rooms and will send you invitations to their social gatherings, which some committee from the district should attend. 13. Get in touch with the women's auxiliaries of the Republican and Democratic organizations of your district. This is very important. 17 14. Get in touch with any particular national group, like the Jewish, the Bohemian, the Norwegian, the Italian, or the German. If there is a local national paper published, see what the editor will do for you in the way of translating our English into that language. 15. Keep a book of your field work, in which keep not only your figures as to enrollments, people visited, but also interesting and picturesque incidents that might do for the press. Also keep pages of people classified as hopeful and unconverted. A great deal of valuable data will slip out of the mind of the worker unless she has some system for recording these items. 16. Get after any classes of people you find. 17. Have an evening for teachers in your district. Look up nurses. Look up wives of doctors, clergymen, etc. Get in touch with all the churches in your district that you can. Attend services, prayer meetings and try to interest them. This will require tact and circumspection. 18. Send out enrollment blanks when paying bills or sending orders. Stamp checks and business documents with "Votes for Women" stamp. Many other methods and activities will suggest themselves to people who are resourceful and interested in this structural work, and bent upon filling the District with suffrage sentiment and strengthening the organization of the Party which means so much to the coherent and effective suffrage life of any Assembly District. XIV ANOTHER FORM LEAFLET FOR DISTRICT WORKERS 1. List all the clubs, organizations, etc. Try to get hearings before those that are hospitable. 2. The Leaders should get all the people they can in their districts to do systematic handing out of literature. 3. Try to get the suffrage slides presented in the five-cent theatres. 4. Get lists of foreign newspapers in the city. 5. Get reform and social facts that could be put into the hands of people. 6. Have geographically located meetings in these districts. 7. Get in touch with groups of the district by professions, doctors, lawyers, teachers, clergymen and social workers. 8. Enlist the settlements. 9. Enlist the churches and church clubs. 10. Enlist the mothers' clubs. 11. Get in touch with any lodging houses and homes. 12. Circularize audiences coming from Public School lectures. XV SUGGESTIONS FOR CONVENTIONS Woman suffrage parties often hold their elections in the fall. One objection to this is that it interferes with the campaigns in October. A good suggestion is to hold: 18 1. Assembly District conventions the second week in January. At this convention. A. Leader and district officers are elected. B. City officers nominated. C. Delegates elected to the City Convention. D. District plans made. 2. City elections may or may not be held the day of the City Convention which may come about the last of January. Each Party organization may adopt its own constitutions or by-laws in which details or procedure may be worked out to suit conditions. XVI PLATFORM OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY We, the delegates of the Woman Suffrage Party in Convention assembled on ............... (date), do join in the declaration of principles: 1. The claim that the American Government is a government of the people, by the people, for the people is a pretense and a delusion as long as one-half of the people are deprived of all voice in that government. 2. Food, clothing and shelter are the fundamental needs of the people and they are and always have been the primary concern of women in the home. We therefore denounce a political system which robs the home of adequate representation and makes business and finance the chief interests of politics. 3. We protest against the iniquity of a political system which refuses to grant to the six million working women engaged in industries outside the Suffrage States a share in the making and enforcing of the laws which control every matter which is vital to their health and well-being. 4. Until the enfranchisement of women, we call upon all women to oppose the idea of a uniform divorce law, because at the present time such a law would be made by men only and therefore necessarily discriminate against women. We declare that in all public conferences and commissions appointed to consider this subject women should have an equal voice with men. 5. We renew our condemnation of the suicidal policy of permitting child labor and give our support to all humanitarian legislation looking toward the amelioration of race-destroying tendencies. 6. In the face of the revelations of the white slave traffic and the demonstrated connection between poverty and prostitution, we declare that the time has come for a complete program of social legislation, including a minimum wage, shorter hours, steady employment, better housing and extensive public recreation. 7. We view with alarm that reactionary educational movement which would restrict the education of women to domestic science and ignore their right to a full and free intellectual life of their own. 8. We congratulate the teachers of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . on their successful struggle for the principle of equal pay for equal work and urge the extension of the principle to the work of industrial women. 9. We repeat our plea for the appointment of women as judges and magistrates in the courts in order that the interests of women and children may be better safeguarded. 10. We express our deepest appreciation of what our English sisters have done for the woman's movement the world over and urge our own women to exhibit equal self-sacrifice and loyalty as occasions may arise. 19 XVII FORM LEAFLET FOR WAGE-EARNERS' SUFFRAGE LEAGUE Why are you paid less than a man? Why do you work in a fire-trap? Why are your hours so long? Why are you all strap hangers when you pay for a seat? Why do you pay the most rent for the worst houses? Why does the cost of living go up while wages go down? Why do your children go into factories? Why do you eat adulterated food? Why don't you get a square deal in the courts? Because You are a Woman and Have No Vote. Votes Make the Law. Votes Enforce the Law. The Law Controls Conditions. Women Who Want Better Conditions MUST Vote. Join the Wage-Earners' Suffrage League. Fee: Ten Cents a Month Fill in the Slip Below and Come to the Next Meeting. I, ...................................................... Occupation ...................................................... Home Address......................................................StreetVCity believing in votes for women, hereby agree to join the Wage-Earners' Suffrage League and work for it. WOMAN SUFFRAGE PARTY 602 JACKSON BLDG. PROVIDENCE[? ?] RI 20 I, the undersigned, believe that the Vote should be given to the Women of New York State. (I have not signed a similar book.) NAME ADDRESS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I hereby certify that these signatures are genuine. Name___________________________ Address______________________________ INDUSTRIAL SECTION New York State Woman Suffrage Party CHAIRMAN: MRS. NORMAN DE R. WHITEHOUSE VICE-CHAIRMEN: MRS. JAMES LEES LAIDLAW MRS. RAYMOND BROWN MRS. HENRY WHITE CANNON TREASURER MRS. OGDEN MILLS REID RECORDING SECRETARY MISS ALICE MORGAN WRIGHT CORRESPONDING SECRETARY MRS. MICHAEL M. VAN BEUREN DIRECTORS MRS. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT, NEW YORK CITY MRS. ARTHUR L. LIVERMORE, YONKERS MISS HARRIET MAY MILLS, SYRACUSE MRS. DEXTER P. RUMSEY, BUFFALO CHAIRMEN OF CAMPAIGN DISTRICTS 1ST: MISS MARY G. HAY 2ND: MRS. RAYMOND BROWN 3RD: MISS LEILA STOTT, ALBANY 4TH: MRS. F.G. PADDOCK, MALONE 5TH: MISS HARRIET MAY MILLS, SYRACUSE 6TH: MRS. HELEN B. OWENS, ITHACA 7TH: MRS. A. CLEMENT, ROCHESTER 8TH: MRS. F.J. SHULER, BUFFALO 9TH: MRS. CARL OSTERHELD, YONKERS 10TH: MRS. GORCON NORRIE, STAATSBURG 11TH: MRS. GEORGE NOTMAN, KEENE VALLEY 12TH: MISS LUCY C. WATSON, UTICA SECTIONS COLLEGIATE LEAGUE PRESIDENT: MRS. CHARLES L. TIFFANY TEACHERS' BRANCH CHAIRMAN, MISS KATHERINE DEVEREUX BLAKE PRESS CHAIRMAN, MISS ROSE YOUNG MEN'S LEAGUE PRESIDENT, JAMES LEES LAIDLAW EQUAL FRANCHISE PRESIDENT, MRS. HOWARD MANSFIELD PUBLICITY COUNCIL CHAIRMAN, MRS. JOHN BLAIR LABOR SECTION CHAIRMAN, MISS MARY S. DREIER TELEPHONE: MADISON SQUARE 6370 Printed by N.W.S. Pub. Co., Inc. 154 LIST OF ENROLLED WOMEN Please return this book when filled and signed, to the New York State Woman Suffrage Party 303 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY Please send a copy of these names to your Assembly District Leader Name of A.D. Leader Address Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.