The State Suffrage Association celebrated the successful termination of its over fifty years of continuous effort by a Victory Convention held in Newark on April 23, 24. Leading features were a Victory banquet with prominent men of both political parties as speakers, and a Pioneers' luncheon, at which Dr. Mary D. Hussey, Mrs. Florence Howe Hall, Mrs. Minola Graham Sexton, Mrs. Clara S. Laddey and other early workers spoke. Before the close of the convention the State League of Women Voters was organized to carry on the work for good government and better conditions through the use of the power which had been secured for them by the older association. Mrs. John R. Schermerhorn was elected chairman.
Legislative Action: 1912. The first resolution for the submission of a woman suffrage amendment to the voters was introduced in February by Senator William C. Gebhardt in the Senate and Assemblyman A. R. McAllister in the House. A public hearing was held on March 12 at which Mrs. Vickers presided and the speakers for the suffrage side were Mrs. Hall, Mrs. Henry Villard, Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mrs. Clara S. Laddey, George T. Vickers and Linton Satterthwaite. Miss Anna Dayton presided for the "antis'" and Mrs. E. N. Loomis was their principal speaker. The vote in the Senate was 18 noes, 3 ayes—Senators Gebhardt of Hunterdon county, J. Warren Davis of Salem and G. W. F. Gaunt of Gloucester. In the Assembly the resolution was finally forced out of an unfavorable committee but was tabled by a vote of 31 ayes, 19 noes.
1913. In January the resolution was introduced by Senator J. Warren Davis and Assemblyman Charles M. Egan. A hearing was held February 18 at which Mrs. Everett Colby presided and the speakers were Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Suffrage Association; U. S. Senator Shafroth of Colorado, Everett Colby, George La Monte and Cornelius Ford, president of the State Federation of Labor. The resolution passed the Senate by 14 ayes, 5 noes, and the Assembly by 45 ayes, 5 noes. A few weeks later it was discovered that the word "or" appeared in the printed resolution instead of "and," making it necessary to have a new one introduced, which went through by the same vote.
