Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/575

 Our first school was held in Baltimore in December, 1916. The manager was Mrs. Livermore, the instructors herself, Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Geyer. The second was in Portland, Me., January 8-20, 1917. The nineteen schools were all under the direction of the organization department. They began with Maryland and extended through fourteen of the southern and middle-west States, closing March 30 in Detroit, Mich. Three instructors, Mrs. Halsey Wilson, Mrs. Cotnam and Miss Doughty, taught Suffrage History and Argument, Organization, Publicity and Press, Money Raising, Parliamentary Law. The chairman of organization, Mrs. Shuler, taught Organization, Parliamentary Law and Money Raising in the Portland school and in the last five schools of the series.

Mrs. Shuler referred to the war work of the association, which is described elsewhere, and told of the wide field that had been covered by organizers, who had reached the number of 225 during the year, many of them employed by the States. The organization work was classified and standardized. A conference of Organizers met in New York where they were instructed by Mrs. Catt, and a pamphlet, the A. B. C. of Organization, was prepared by Mrs. Shuler. As an example of the work done, nine Organizers reported 385 meetings in eleven weeks in 25 States and organization effected in 178 towns. The report told of the work done from the headquarters for the Presidential suffrage that had been obtained in various States and in campaigns.

The report of the Committee on Presidential Suffrage was of especial interest, as for the first time in all the years, with one exception, there were victories to record. This report had been made annually by Henry B. Blackwell, editor of The Woman's Journal until his death in 1910, but although he had implicit faith in the possibility of this partial franchise he did not live to see its first success in Illinois in 1913. Miss Elizabeth Upham Yates (R. I.) followed him in the chairmanship but met with an accident which caused her to relinquish it to Mrs. Robert S. Huse. She believed the granting of this form of the franchise helped the cause of full suffrage and through a questionnaire to the different states she had collected much information as to the best method of handling such bills. All wrote that the anti-suffragists were, supported in their opposition to them by the liquor interests. During a discussion of the war work of women Mrs. F. Louis Slade of New York moved (adopted) that as so large a share