NAWSA Subject File Congressional Union Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association 


[*Cong Union 

Answered 
FEB 3 1914
Supplies C.U.*]

MASSACHUSETTS WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION
585 BOYLSTON STREET, BOSTON

February 2, 1914.

My dear Mrs. Dennett:

A letter from the National President to the members of the
National Executive Council has recently been circulated, urging that
the application of the Congressional Union as an auxiliary member of
the National Ass'n. be rejected, on the ground that its policy is opposed
to the non-partisan policy of the National.

As a member of the National Executive Council, I want to
call the attention of the other members to the following facts:

1. Miss Paul's report at the Convention, which contained a
statement of her plan to make the Federal Amendment a party
measure, and to oppose Democratic candidates for Congress in
the Suffrage states, was read and passed without opposition.

2. It was voted at the Convention that the Congressional
Committee be retained, and there was at the time no suggestion
of a change of policy, or of the make-up of the Committee.

Since the adjournment of the Convention, certain steps have
been taken by the National Board.

1. The Chairman of the Congressional Committee has been
changed.

2. The policy of the Congressional Committee has been 
changed.

3. There has been a public repudiation of the former Committee
and its methods.

These things have been done at a critical moment in the
midst of an active political campaign on the part of the Congressional
Union.

The effect has been:

1. To divert effort from active congressional work to a deplorable
and public struggle over differences of opinion, and

2. To diminish, if not destroy, our chance of securing the appointment
of a Woman Suffrage Committee in the House of Representatives.

The question as to whether Miss Paul's policy or the
National's policy is wise or unwise is debatable. This is shown by
the strong differences of opinion already expressed on both sides.

It is, however, certain that no body of earnest organized
suffragists should be refused a place in our National body without a
fully discussed and clearly proven cases of unfitness.


-2-

In view, therefore, of the effective work of Miss Paul
and her associates during the past year; of the fact that her policy
has not been discussed or condemned by the Convention; and of the
fact that the policy now advocated by the National Board has not
been discussed or adopted by the Association:

I hope that the Congressional Union will be accepted as an
auxiliary member of the NationalAssociation, and that some form of
cooperation may be devised between the Congressional Union and the
Congressional Committee, so that the cause of Woman Suffrage shall
not suffer from internal warfare.

Sincerely yours,
Gertrude Halladay Leonard GS
Massachusetts Member, National Executive Council.

Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett,
National American Woman Suffrage Ass'n., 
505 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N. Y.

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