Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/441

 convention held at Atlantic City in September gave a great impetus to the State work. The annual convention met in Jersey City in November, where it was decided to conduct a strenuous campaign during 1917 for Presidential suffrage and for the Federal Amendment and to employ four field organizers. The new officers elected were Mrs. John J. White, Miss Lulu H. Marvel, Mrs. J. Thompson Baker, vice-presidents; Miss Anita Still, auditor. The Rev. Antoinette Brown Blackwell and Dr. Mary D. Hussey were added to the list of honorary presidents.

A bill for Presidential suffrage was introduced in the Legislature in February, 1917, and everything was going finely when war was declared. The suffrage association was the first women’s organization in the State to offer its services to the Governor and was publicly thanked by him for its patriotic stand. At his request it conducted a canvass of women nurses, doctors and clerical workers and received letters of thanks from him and the Adjutant General for this very successful piece of work. It cooperated in the organization of a Woman’s Division of the State Council of National Defense and its president, Mrs. Feickert, was vice-chairman of the Council. The association purchased and operated a Soldiers’ Club House and canteen in the town of Wrightstown, near which Camp Dix was located. It was opened in November, 1917, and was kept open until June, 1919, by volunteer workers. Over $30,000 were raised for it, one-fifth of this amount being contributed by Mrs. White. More than 250,000 men were entertained there. Officers and members of the association responded to all demands of the war.

The annual convention was held in the Capitol at Trenton in November. Reports showed that only thirty of the hundreds of local branches had dropped suffrage work because of their war activities, and the spirit was one of determination that the battle for real democracy in the United States should be kept up just as actively as the war against autocracy abroad. Mrs. Wells P. Eagleton was elected a vice-president, Mrs. E. G. Blaisdell a secretary and Mrs. F. W. Veghte an auditor. The State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs was accepted as an affiliated organization and its president, the Rev. Florence Randolph, was made a member of the State Board. The convention voted to