Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/932

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

man; the chairman of the national organization committee, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt; Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and Miss Elizabeth Burrill Curtis; from Syracuse, Miss Harriet May Mills; and in Albany already were Mrs. Blake, Mrs. Almy, Mrs. Julia D. Sheppard and a number of local suffragists. Miss Anthony, Mrs. Chapman Catt and Miss Mills addressed the committee. As the delegation withdrew one senator said to another: "I do not know what is to become of us men when such women as these come up to the Legislature." Nevertheless the resolution was not reported by the committee.

Under the auspices of a Civic Union of all the boroughs of the proposed "Greater New York," an active campaign was carried on during this winter to secure various advantages for women under the new charter, but it met with no especial success.

In 1898 Mrs. Mary Hilliard Loines was chairman of the legislative committee, and Mrs. Florence Dangerfield Potter, a graduate of Cornell and of the New York University Law School, acted as attorney. The Suffrage Amendment Resolution was introduced the first week of the session by Representative Otto Kelsey, a steadfast friend of woman suffrage. The usual number of letters was sent throughout the State to secure co-operation and a hearing was given March 2 in the Assembly library. The speakers introduced by Mrs. Loines were Mrs. Chapman, Miss Mills, Mrs. Craigie, Miss Margaret Livingstone Chanler and Mrs. Martha A. B. Conine, a member of the Colorado Legislature. The Rev. William Brundage of Albany spoke forcibly in favor of the amendment. No opponents were present. Al though the chairman and some members of the committee were in favor, it was learned that the majority were opposed, so a vote was not pressed. The Senate committee being the same as the previous year, it was thought not worth while to introduce the resolution into that body.

In 1899 the legislative work differed from that of the years directly preceding, the executive committee having decided that it might be wiser to ask for some form of suffrage which the Legislature itself could grant without submitting the question to the voters. The following bills were authorized:

I: To make it obligatory to appoint at least one woman on