was at war with Spain, John Hay actually had the temerity to draft a peace project, although he knew, so he said, that he 'would be lucky if he escaped lynching for it.' Are you willing to apply to Mrs. Wadsworth's father the chain of alleged reasoning that you apply to me, and, because of his great faith in and hope for peace, call him a traitor to his country?"
These letters had no effect on the abuse and misrepresentation of the suffragists but the charges were continued by the leaders of the "antis" until after the close of the war. There can be no doubt that the splendid war work of the suffragists was a principal factor in the submission and ratification of the Federal Amendment. Their instant and universal response in New York to the call of the Government, and later the actual conscription of all women over sixteen years of age by the Governor, proved that not only were women capable of war service but actually liable for it. 'These facts were largely responsible for the big majority vote cast by the men for woman suffrage in November, 1917, and the action of this great State paved the way for the success of the Federal Amendment in Congress.
It is impossible in this brief space to set forth the achievements of the Woman's Committee, Council of National Defense, whose chairman, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, was honorary president of, the National American Woman Suffrage Association and had been for eleven years its president; two of whose members, Mrs. Catt and Mrs. McCormick, were now its president and vice-president, while five of the remaining eight were prominent suffragists. Its accomplishments were on so large a scale and embodied so much important detail that only a full review could do them justice. The facts attested to the work of an organization which built up branches in forty-eight States comprising 18,000 component units and capable in at least one instance of reaching as many as 82,000 women in a single State. The reader is referred to the excellent account by Mrs. Emily Newell Blair—The Woman's Committee, United States Council of National Defense, an interpretative report. (Government Printing Office.)
From the time Dr. Shaw called the first meeting, May 2, 1917, to the middle of March, 1919, the committee labored unceasingly to perform its great task. On New Year's Day, 1918, a telegram
