Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/721

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WISCONSIN
705

following the legislative session of 1913, giving the records of all members on the bills of especial interest to women which came up that year. Wisconsin Legislation, Topics for Discussion, was prepared in 1915 by Mrs. J. W. McMullein Turner for the use of the legislative and educational committees.

Miss James served as legislative chairman in 1913; Mrs. Ben Hooper in 1915; Mrs. Joseph Jastrow in 1917; Mrs. Hooper again in 1919. She was also for several years congressional chairman. Regular press service was continued during the last decade, a weekly letter being sent to 100 newspapers. Mrs. Youmans had charge of all publicity during her presidency. Mrs. Gudden supplied suffrage letters regularly to several German papers and due to her ability they were always published.

In March, 1916, a Congressional Conference was held in Milwaukee with Mrs. Catt, the national president, as the chief speaker. In June at the time of the Republican National Convention in Chicago the association sent to the great suffrage parade an impressive contingent, accompanied by a G. A. R. drum corps. This year it gave $500 to the Iowa campaign and among its members who assisted there and in campaigns in other States were Mrs. Hooper, Mrs. Haight, Miss Curtis, Mrs. Maud McCreery, Miss Edna Wright and Mrs. Youmans.

On Oct. 14, 1917, a branch of the National Woman’s Party was formed in the home of Mrs. Victor Berger and became active. There were two anti-suffrage societies of women, one in Milwaukee and one in Madison, and together they formed a so-called State association, of which Mrs. C. E. Estabrook was president and Mrs. Francis Day an active member. They provided speakers for legislative hearings and signed their names to newspaper articles sent them from the East but were of slight importance. The State petition work was stopped by the epidemic of influenza in the autumn of 1918 and after the first of the next year the apparent favorable attitude of the Legislature made it unnecessary, but already in forty counties the names of 5,800 men and 20,000 women had been obtained. Self-denial Day was originated by Miss Harriet Bain of Wisconsin and adopted by the National Association. The fund in this State was over $400.

The State association was prompt to organize for war work