Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/297

 Through the campaign year of 1914, preceding the vote on a constitutional amendment, which had been submitted by the Legislature, the association kept five salaried speakers continually in the field, besides numerous volunteers. On the list of the speakers' bureau there were 125 women and 76 men. The State and the Boston headquarters had a large office force, and in the field were nine organizers, giving full or half time. The State College Equal Suffrage League handled the retail literature for the association and took charge of the office hospitality. The Equal Franchise Committee, Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw, president, had an important part in the campaign. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage was reorganized with Oakes Ames as president and Joseph Kelley as secretary. The Harvard Men's League cooperated in many ways. The use of one of the University Halls for a speech by Mrs. Pankhurst was refused to it, much to the chagrin of liberal-minded graduates and undergraduates, but she held a very successful meeting in a nearby hall. The use of a hall was refused also for Mrs. Florence Kelley, although she had spoken at Harvard on other subjects. In order to avoid further trouble the Harvard Corporation voted that thereafter no woman should be allowed to lecture in the college halls except by its special invitation. This rule was abandoned later and Miss Helen Todd of California spoke on suffrage in Emerson Hall before a large audience.

Other suffrage organizations sprang up or were enlarged, the Writers' League, the Players' League, etc. Local branches were built up rapidly under the leadership of Mrs. Pinkham, State organization chairman, and by the spring of 1914 there were 138 leagues and committees. Just before the vote in November, 1915, these had grown to 200. Monthly conferences of the district leaders were held at State headquarters. A systematic effort was made to build up strong suffrage organizations in the cities outside of Boston. Workers and speakers were sent through the State to help the local workers. In 1914 a series of two-day conferences was held in eleven of the sixteen counties, the first day devoted to discussion of work with local leaders and the second to holding often as many as twenty meetings by a corps