ences from outside the State led to the organization of the Political Equality League, of which Miss Ada L. James was president and Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict from New York was made campaign manager. The campaign of 1911-1912, therefore, was carried on by two organizations, the State association and this league, working separately, although effort was made to correlate their activities by forming a cooperative committee representing both societies, of which Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis was chairman. The National American Woman Suffrage Association, through its president, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, contributed $100 per month salary for an organizer and speaker, Miss Harriet Grim, and gave further assistance to both organizations.[1]
Both associations employed field organizers, arranged meetings, provided speakers, distributed literature and made active effort to interest as far as possible organizations and individuals in the cause. The State association had headquarters in the Majestic Building and later in the Goldsmith Building in Milwaukee. The League had offices first in the Wells Building and later in the Colby-Abbott Building in that city. A bulletin of suffrage news was sent each week to the 600 newspapers in the State by Mrs. Youmans, who was press manager.
The campaign opened with a big rally in Racine June 1, 1912. The Rev. Olympia Brown, State president, continued her speaking tours without cessation and was assisted by prominent outside speakers, including Mrs. May Wright Sewall, Mrs. Colby, Dr. and Mrs. William Funck of Baltimore, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery and Mrs. Clara V. Laddey, who addressed the Germans. Miss Willis arranged a course of lectures in Milwaukee for Miss Jane Addams, Louis F. Post, Dr. Sophonisba Breckinridge of Chicago University, and Mrs. Catherine Waugh McCulloch.[2]
The Political Equality League believed enthusiastically in street meetings and arranged many of them in Milwaukee and other
- ↑ Near the end of the campaign Miss Mary Swain Wagner from New York organized the American Suffragettes, a short-lived society, with Mises Martha Heide as president, and it arranged a masse meeting in Milwaukee with Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England as the principal speaker.
- ↑ A unique automobile tour was made by Mrs. McCulloch and her husband, Frank McCulloch, both prominent lawyers in Chicago, and their four children, who devoted their annual vacation in the summer of 1912 to a tour through Wisconsin, the eldest son driving a big car, Mr. and Mrs. McCulloch making suffrage speeches at designated points and the three younger children enjoying the outing.
