The story of the campaign in Maine the preceding September was told by the chairman of the campaign committee, Mrs. Deborah Knox Livingston, the next afternoon, and the reasons given for its almost inevitable failure. [See Maine chapter.] A lively discussion took place on the advisability of campaigns for Presidential suffrage and Mrs. Catt gave the opinion that its legality when granted by a Legislature was unquestioned but if by a referendum to the voters it would be doubtful. The war work undertaken by the association was thoroughly considered, with a general review of Women's War Service by Mrs. Katharine Dexter McCormick, second vice-president. She sketched briefly the appointment of a woman's branch of the Council of National Defense and pointed out how the choice of Dr. Shaw for chairman had brought the suffragists into even closer cooperation with the Government if possible than would have resulted from their intense patriotism.[1] Reports were made by the chairmen of the association's four committees, as follows: Food Production—Mrs. Henry Wade Rogers; Thrift—Mrs. Walter McNab Miller; Americanization—Mrs. Frederick P. Bagley; Industrial Protection of Women—Miss Ethel M. Smith. A Child Welfare Committee was added to the list.
Dr. Shaw presided at the evening session of the second day of the convention and to this and other programs Mrs. Newton D. Baker contributed her beautiful voice, with Mrs. Morgan Lewis Brett at the piano. Mrs. Charles W. Fairfax and Paul Bleyden also sang most acceptably and there was music by the Meyer-Davis orchestra. This evening the speakers were the Hon. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior; the Hon. Jeannette Rankin, first woman member of the National House of Representatives, and Mrs. Catt, who gave her president's address. The presence of Secretary Lane added much prestige as well as political significance to the program, for it was interpreted as an indication that President Wilson had advanced from a belief in woman suffrage itself to an advocacy of the Federal Amendment, which was the keynote of the convention. "I come to you tonight," the Secretary said, "to bring a word of
- ↑ See Mrs. McCormick's complete account in the last chapter on The War Work of Organized Suffragists prepared for this volume.
