Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/301

 by 28 State federations but in no other had the defeated minority undertaken to organize another society.

Thirty county fairs out of thirty-seven were covered systematically. Special help in the campaign work was given by Ohio, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The question of woman suffrage was presented before 621 organizations of men through the efforts of a committee formed for that purpose, under Mrs. Evelyn Peverly Coe's chairmanship: Women attended nearly all the primaries and town meetings, distributing literature and urging the men to vote yes.

As the election approached the work along all lines grew more intensive. Well-organized victory automobile tours ran steadily throughout the summer and fall, in the eastern part of the State under the direction of Mrs. Walter G. Morey and in the western under Miss Luscomb. Meetings were held at the fashionable hotels on the north and south shores and outdoor meetings at the popular beach resorts. Comparatively few were held indoors but 1,675 were supplied with speakers. Big meetings were addressed in Boston and other large cities by U. S. Senator William E. Borah and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw. An elaborate luncheon was given by the Men's League and the State association at the Hotel Bellevue to the Governors' conference held in Boston. Valuable help at this time was rendered by Governor Walsh and the favorable opinions of the Governors of equal suffrage States were published at length in the Boston papers by the Men's League. At the last moment mass meetings were held in Boston at Symphony Hall and in the largest halls of many other cities. A symbolical and picturesque flag-raising took place on Boston Common. A last-minute circular was sent to each of the State's 600,000 registered voters. The day before the vote the railroad stations in Boston were visited morning and evening and thousands of pieces of literature were given to the commuters.

On election day, Nov. 2, 1915, practically all the polling places in the State were covered by 8,000 women, who stood for hours holding aloft placards reading, "Show your Faith in the Women of Massachusetts; vote 'Yes' on Woman Suffrage." And yet after all this strenuous effort and self-sacrificing devotion the amendment was defeated by a vote of 295,489 to 163,406, a