Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/481

 necessary to obtain re-submission, for which the City Party worked incessantly until the amendment was re-submitted by the Legislatures of 1916 and 1917 and preparations were again made for a great campaign.

The campaign of 1915 had been one of the highways, and of spectacular display. That of 1917 was of the byways, of quiet, intensive work reaching every group of citizens. The campaign was launched at a meeting in Aeolian Hall, March 29, where the addresses of Mrs. Catt and Miss Hay aroused true campaign fervor, the former saying: "Some foreign countries have given the franchise to women for their war work; we ask it that our women may feel they have been recognized as assets of the nation before it calls on them for war work."

The suffragists offered their services to the Government, even before it declared war; the State Party to the Governor, the City Party to the Mayor. The later said in a resolution adopted February 5: 'We place at the disposal of the Mayor of this city for any service he may require our full organization of over 200,000 women, thoroughly organized and trained and with headquarters in every borough." The mass of the members stood solidly behind this offer. A War Service Committee was appointed with Mrs. F. Louis Slade as its chairman and it accomplished work that was not exceeded, if indeed equalled, in any city of the United States. Nine other committees were also appointed.

The leading features of the campaign of 1917 were the war work and the enrolling of women. In 1916 when Mrs. Catt started a canvass to obtain a million signatures of women to a petition to answer the argument, "Women do not want to vote," the City Party took as its share the securing of 514,555 in Greater New York. This accomplished, the signatures mounted on big placards were placed on exhibition at Party headquarters, now in East 38th Street, and a little ceremony was arranged during which Mayor John Purroy Mitchel and other prominent men made commendatory speeches. Debarred from outdoor meetings during the summer of 1916 on account of an epidemic and during the summer of 1917 because of war conditions, the following was nevertheless accomplished: