Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/827



and its speakers were given a joint hearing in Representative Hall on the Municipal Suffrage Bill, which was then before the Legislature. Addresses were made by Harriet J. Boutelle, Belle M. Perry, Sarah E. V. Emery and Martha Snyder Root.

Miss Anthony was present at the State convention, which took place in Battle Creek, May 4, 5, 1892. Articles of incorporation were adopted and Mrs. Ketcham was elected president.

In June the State Republican Convention met at East Saginaw. Mrs. Ketcham, with Mrs. Doe, chairman of the legislative committee, pleaded before the Committee on Resolutions for recognition of this measure. They were courteously treated and when about to retire their opinion was asked on a list of resolutions presented from Genesee County, viz.: That women professors be appointed at Michigan University until their number should bear a fair proportion to the number of women students; that women be appointed on boards of control of the State penal, reformatory and charitable institutions; that Municipal Suffrage for women be recommended, and that an amendment to the State constitution, striking out the word "male" as a qualification for voters, be submitted to the electors. The ladies indorsed all except the fourth proposition, but none of them was adopted.

After the nominations for the Legislature had been made, letters were written to candidates of all parties to ascertain their attitude toward the Municipal Suffrage Bill. Many favorable and some evasive replies were received, while not a few letters were wholly ignored. A suffrage lecture course was arranged in eight cities, from November, 1892, to March, 1893, inclusive, with Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw, president and vice-president-at-large of the National Association and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the organization committee, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby of Washington, D. C., and Mrs. Lida A. Meriwether of Tennessee, as speakers.

The next annual convention was held in the Capitol, Feb. 1-3, 1893. Mrs. Colby had preceded it in January with her address on Wyoming, given in Representative Hall, the facts and figures of which left a strong impression. The speakers addressed the Legislature in behalf of the Municipal Suffrage Bill.