Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/298

 of speakers, at factories, stores, men's clubs, labor unions, church organizations, on the street, etc.

To educate the men who were to vote upon the question, a State-wide canvass of voters was begun by Mrs. Crowley, which was carried on up to election day. A body of from five to seven intelligent women, informed on the question, re-enforced by local volunteers, called from house to house, talking to the voter or his wife, leaving suffrage literature and if possible getting the voter's signature to a card pledge to vote yes. These canvassers moved from city to city and from town to town, reaching from one-half to two-thirds of the registered voters, averaging about 1,500 calls per week and leaving the rest of the work to be carried on by local women. By election day over 250,000 voters had been interviewed, 100,000 had signed pledge cards and more than 50,000 others had expressed themselves as favorable.

Much of this work was made possible by the activities of the Ways and Means Committee of the State Association, under the chairmanship of Mrs. B. F. Pitman, who, during the many years that she served in that capacity, repeatedly rescued the association from the verge of debt and filled up its treasury. Her committee accomplished this by a Bay State Bazaar held every year at the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston; by balls, theatrical performances, outdoor fêtes, pageants and other entertainments.

As an extra provision for the campaign of 1915, the Bay State Finance Committee was formed in 1914 by Mrs. Park, chairman, which with the State association raised and spent about $54,000 in the campaign. This was exclusive of the money spent by the various leagues and branches throughout the State, including $10,820 by the Boston Association for Good Government.

For two years educational work was pushed in every way. It was carried into the country districts by systematic trolley and automobile trips, parties of workers carrying out well planned itineraries in different parts of the State, involving usually from two to four open-air meetings per day. Audiences were secured in all the small and scattered places, even the most remote, by postal notices mailed from State headquarters several days in advance to every registered voter.

Among the means employed to draw attention were huge