Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/104

 Wilmington welcomed them in the City Hall and they were guests at the Garrick Theater, where they spoke between acts to an overcrowded house. The State association was well represented in the famous parade in Washington, D. C., on March 3, and again on April 7 when 531 women from various States marched to the Capitol bearing special messages to members of Congress, urging their support of the Federal Amendment. A tent was established at the State Fair in September, realizing a long cherished desire of the president, with Miss Ella W. Johnson in charge. The two organizations joined forces and opened headquarters in Wilmington, from which petitions to Congress were circulated and much literature sent out.

The annual convention was held Oct. 30, 1914, at Dover, the State capital but with no suffrage club. Secretary of State James H. Hughes welcomed the convention for vice-Mayor McGee, who refused to do so. The speakers were Mrs. Helen Hoy Greeley of New York, Samuel H. Derby of Kent county and Mrs. Florence Bayard Hilles, Delaware chairman of the Congressional Union. In Wilmington a meeting was held February 15 in honor of Miss Anthony's birthday, with Miss Anna Maxwell Jones of New York as the speaker. In April on Arbor Day a "suffrage oak" was planted, Mayor Howell presiding. In May a successful parade, the first, was given in Wilmington with Mrs. Hilles in command. In September both political State conventions were asked to endorse woman suffrage but refused. Two rooms were furnished by and named in honor of the State association, one at the Industrial School for Girls in Claymont and one at the College for Women in Newark. It again had a tent at the State Fair; prizes were given in the schools for the best essays on woman suffrage; Lucy Stone's birthday was honored in August 13; members were enrolled by the hundreds and fifteen executive meetings were held. The City Council's invitation was accepted to march in the Old Home Week parade.

The convention for 1915 took place on November 11, in Wilmington, with speakers, Dr. Shaw, Miss Worrell on Elizabeth Cady Stanton's 100th Birthday; Miss Ethel Smith of Washington, D. C., on National Work. Mrs. Cranston, "the Susan B. Anthony of Delaware," the association's first and only president