Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/479

 mittees and States and the practical preparations for entering upon what all felt was the last stage of the long contest. The overshadowing event of the convention was Dr. Anna Howard Shaw's retirement from the presidency, which she had held eleven years. The delegates were not unprepared, as she had announced her intention in the following brief letter published in the Woman's Journal Nov. 27, 1915:

During the last year I have been increasingly conscious of the growing response to the spoken word on behalf of this cause of ours. Because of the unparalleled large audiences drawn to our standard everywhere, I have become convinced that my highest service to the suffrage movement can best be given if I am relieved of the exacting duties of the presidency so that I may be free to engage in campaign work, since each year brings its quota of campaign States. Therefore, after careful consideration, I have decided not to stand for re-election to the office of president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. I have deferred making this announcement until the campaigns were ended, but now that it is time to consider the work for a pecans year, I feel it my duty to do so.

The president's address of Dr. Shaw had long been the leading feature of the conventions but this year it was heard with deeper interest than ever before, if this were possible. Because every word was significant she had written it and as it afterwards appeared in pamphlet form it filled fourteen closely printed pages. It was a masterly treatment of woman suffrage in its relation. to many of the great problems of the day and it seems a sacrilege to attempt to convey by detached quotations an idea of its power and beauty. A large part of it will be found in the Appendix to this chapter. She set forth in the strongest possible words the necessity of a Federal Amendment but said:

There is not a single reason given upon which to base a hope for congressional action that does not rest upon the power and influence to be derived from the equal suffrage States, which power was secured by the slow but effective method of winning State by State. If all our past and present successes in Congress are due to the influence of enfranchised States, is it not safe to assume that the future power must come from the same source until it is sufficiently strong to insure a reasonable prospect of national legislation? To transform this hope into fulfillment we must follow several lines of campaign, each of which is essential to success: 1. By continuing the appeal which for thirty-seven years without cessation the