Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/782

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
714
HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

those who served before. The Hon. George S. Hale said at the annual suffrage meeting, “Both ladies are admirably qualified, and the one who acted last year is declared by all the men who served with her to be the most valuable member of the board.”

Out of 622 students and professors at Wellesley College, who were questioned as to their views on suffrage, 506 declared themselves in favor, and 500 of them united in sending a telegram of congratulation to the women of Colorado on the passage of the equal suffrage amendment this year. (1893.)

At the May Festival 1,000 sat down to the banquet and hundreds occupied the balconies. Ex-Governor Long presided. One of the speakers was Robert S. Gray, chairman of the Committee on Woman Suffrage in the Legislature. In honor of Mrs. Howe’s seventy-fifth birthday Mrs. Alice J. Harris sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic, the audience joining in the chorus.

On June 18 delegates from many labor organizations met in Boston, in response to a call from the Boston Workingmen’s Political League, and decided to act together at the ballot box. Their platform demanded universal suffrage irrespective of sex.

Lucy Stone mite-boxes were circulated by the association for funds to aid the amendment campaign in Kansas. Mr. Blackwell attended the National Convention of Republican Clubs held in Denver. On June 27 it reiterated the woman suffrage resolution it had passed the year before in Louisville.

On July 24 Woman’s Day was celebrated at the Massachusetts Chautauqua in South Framingham, with many able speakers. On September 4 Woman’s Day was observed at the New England Agricultural Fair in Worcester. Colonel Needham, its president, made an earnest woman suffrage address and was followed by Mrs. Howe, Miss Yates, Mrs. Mary Sargent Hopkins and Mr. Blackwell. In December a suffrage fair was held under the management of Mrs. Abby M. Davis which cleared about $1,800. On the opening night Mrs. Cheney presided and there were addresses by Lady Henry Somerset and Miss Frances E. Willard.

This year the association kept the papers supplied with suffrage articles more thoroughly than ever before; had speakers present the subject to thirty-one women’s clubs: furnished literature to the legislators, to 5,000 public school teachers, to all the Con-

—_