Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/571

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PENNSYLVANIA
555

campaign year 56 counties were supplied, involving the services of 64 speakers; 14 were men, 33 were Pennsylvanians, 14 contributed services and expenses and 27 asked expenses only. The bureau made a study of the characteristics of each county in industry, agriculture, character of population and politics. Speakers were then offered who would be acceptable to the community as well as to the particular meeting. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national president, gave 28 lectures and from every county reports came that hundreds of converts were made.

The manager of the publicity department, Charles T. Heaslip, was an expert not only in the art of journalism but also in the art of publicity. This department ultimately required the full time of three special writers. Semi-monthly a two column plate service was sent to 260 papers from February and from October I it was weekly, the list of papers having grown to 346. Allegheny county, in which Pittsburgh is located, conducted the most efficient county campaign. Its headquarters practically duplicated the State headquarters at Harrisburg with secretaries and organizers and it was the only one which employed its own publicity agent. A weekly news bulletin was issued to 500 papers and the regular service was supplemented by special stories. Much work was done in advance of meetings. From July to November a weekly cartoon service was undertaken, a new feature in suffrage campaign work. According to the newspaper men it comprised the best cartoons ever used in any campaign in the State and the money spent for them brought greater returns than that for any other feature. The cartoonists were C. Batchelor, Charles H. Winner and Walter A. Sinclair.

In special features the publicity department avoided sensationalism. Suffrage Flower Gardens, Good Roads Day, the Justice Bell and Supplication Day comprised practically the entire list. Attractive yellow boxes containing seeds for the old-fashioned yellow flowers were offered for sale by the State association and the flower gardens furnished a picturesque form of propaganda and long continued publicity. In Pennsylvania a day in the spring is set aside by the department of highways when all residents along country roads are asked to contribute their services for their improvement. The local suffrage organizations provided coffee