Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/497

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NEW YORK
481

Every registered voter was circularized at least once and many twice. Special letters and literature were prepared for picked groups of men, 198,538 letters in all, and speakers were sent to the military camps where this was permitted. The Speakers' Bureau, conducted by Mrs. Victor Morawetz, had 150 speakers on its lists and a record of 2,015 speakers placed in the State. Besides these more than 7,000 meetings were arranged independently. In New York City 58 speakers held 2,085 meetings, a total of 11,100. Senators and Representatives from the equal suffrage States were to speak in the closing days of the campaign but the war held Congress constantly in session and most of the other prominent men who had promised to speak were prevented: by service for the Government.

The Publicity Section, under Mrs. John Blair, advertised the amendment in every way that human ingenuity could devise. Huge street banners exhorting men to vote for suffrage hung across the most crowded streets in New York and in all the large cities. Every kind of advertising medium was used, billboards, street cars, subway and elevated cars and stations, railroad cars and stations; large electric signs and painted illuminated signs flashed weeks before election, the slogan most often used being, "1,014,000 Women ask you to Vote for Woman Suffrage November 6,"

For the last two weeks a great campaign of newspaper advertising was carried on. There appeared almost daily in 728 morning and evening papers, including many in foreign languages, pages of suffrage argument, and as a result the news columns began to be filled again with suffrage. The Press Bureau, Miss Rose Young, director, assisted by local press chairmen, continued as in the first campaign but with an increased output, news bulletins, editorial matter, special articles, material for special editions, photographs, newspaper cuts, statements from one hundred leading New York City and State men headed, Why I am for Woman Suffrage, etc. About 20,000 columns of free plate material were provided for the newspapers.

It would be impossible to give the total cost of the campaign with accuracy. As far as possible each district supported its own work. 'The central State treasury spent $413,353; New