Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/85

 The convention of 1911, held in Bridgeport, showed great advance in organization and general activity. Miss Pierson was elected State organizer and an automobile tour of one of the eight counties was undertaken in August under her spirited leadership. Thirty-one meetings were held and fourteen new leagues were formed and affiliated with the State association. The income was reported at the convention as having been $3,966 and the enrolled membership had increased to over 5,000. At this convention Mrs. Hepburn declined re-election on account of family duties and Mrs. William T. Hincks, president of a new and active league at Bridgeport, was chosen. Mrs. Hepburn remained a useful member of the board.

In 1912 the annual convention was held at New Haven, where after much difficulty Miss Pierson had organized a flourishing Equal Franchise League with Mrs. Carlos F. Stoddard president. A Political Equality Club had existed here from before the opening of the century but its membership was small and it made no appeal to a large number of women who were ready to come out for suffrage. It seemed better, as in Hartford in 1909, to form a new organization with younger leaders.

The annual convention in 1913 was held in Hartford. Mrs. Hincks refused re-election and Mrs. Hepburn was again chosen, with Mrs. M. Toscan Bennett as treasurer. The work accomplished during the year, as reported at the convention, had included the collection of 18,000 names to a petition to the Legislature for full suffrage for women, while campaigns had covered the smaller cities and towns and resulted in the organization of all the State except one county.

The convention of 1914 again took place in Hartford and Mrs. Hepburn, with practically the whole board, was re-elected. The work of the year included a "ward campaign," in which a beginning was made of organizing on the lines of a political party, automobile campaigns completing the organization of the whole State; the first suffrage parade took place in Hartford on May 2. Political work had resulted in obtaining a woman suffrage plank in the Democratic State platform, The total income for the year was $17,770.

In 1915 at the State convention in Hartford Mrs. Hepburn was