Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/345

 suffrage in Colorado, was introduced and outlined its work. Mrs. Alexander Pope Humphrey was presented and gave a cordial invitation to a reception for the convention at her home, Truecastle, at the close of the afternoon session, which was as cordially accepted. Mrs. Ben Hardin Helm, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was greeted and expressed her sympathy with the work of the association.

After these pleasant ceremonies at the morning session the convention immediately proceeded to business and listened to the reports from the various committees. That of the new corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mary Ware Dennett, gave a graphic illustration of the rapid increase in the size and scope of the work in her department. After describing the demands from almost every State and saying that the correspondence had doubled during the past year while the output of literature had tripled, she continued:

The correspondence with Canada has been very interesting and has steadily increased and we have sent a good deal of literature to British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Literature and letters have gone to Switzerland, Finland and even Japan, in answer to requests, the Japanese correspondent being in the midst of writing a book on the rights of women, because, as he quaintly put it, he believed there was "undoubtedly a truth in it." We have a steadily increasing stream of requests for suitable programs for study clubs, also a sudden spurt of requests for suffrage speakers from the Federation of Women's Clubs. The example of the last Biennial, when woman suffrage appeared for the first time on the official program of the Federation, has precipitated almost an epidemic of suffrage meetings in the State federations and local clubs.

The Official Board of the association has made a serious recommendation to the State officers to push the plan of political district organization as the best and most systematic and reliable way of preparing for the submission of a suffrage amendment. A leaflet giving the details of the plan has been published and widely distributed and it has been accepted as scheduled or in modified form in ten States, in most of which the name Woman Suffrage Party has been adopted, following the example of New York City, which was the first to adapt the enrollment work long ago established by the National Association to the needs of modern political action. The National office prepared reports of the work of the association for the meeting of the U. S. National Council of Women and for the congress of the International Suffrage Alliance in Stockholm. We have established an exchange of propaganda with the International Shop in London. At the suggestion of Mrs. Carrie