Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/586

 

For the first time since it was founded in 1869 the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1918 omitted its annual convention. Suffragists were accustomed to strenuous effort but this year strained to the last ounce the strength of all engaged in national work. The Congressional Committee could not secure the respite of a single day and were summoning women from all parts of the country for service in Washington and demanding extra work from them at home, telegrams, letters, influence from the constituencies, etc. There was a vote Jan. 10, 1918, in the Lower House and a continual pressure from that moment to get a vote in the Senate, which did not come till October and was adverse. Then the committee pushed on without stopping Mrs. Shuler, the corresponding secretary, had been in the Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma campaigns all summer and was exhausted. The three States were carried for suffrage and when the election was over all the forces were used to obtain Presidential suffrage in the big legislative year beginning January, 1919. It was a question of pressing forward to victory or stopping to prepare for and hold a convention and lose the opportunities for gains in Congress.

During the first ten months of 1918 the vast conflict in Europe had gone steadily on; the United States had sent over millions of soldiers and other millions were in training camps on this side of the ocean; transportation was blocked; the advanced cost of living had brought distress to many households; thousands of families were in mourning, and everywhere suffragists were devoting time and strength to those heavy burdens of war which always fall on women. By November 1, when it would have been necessary to issue the call for a convention, there was no prospect of a change in these hard conditions, and when on