tion in June. Every possible influence was
brought to bear by the State and the National Associations. Miss
Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt went to Kansas to open the
spring canvass for the women, May 4. They spoke to an immense audience
in Kansas City and a resolution was adopted urging all parties to put
a woman suffrage plank in their platforms. Miss Anthony's speech was
published in full in the Leavenworth _Times_, Col. D. R. Anthony,
editor, and circulated throughout the State. This was the beginning of
a great series of two-days' suffrage conventions held by two groups of
speakers and so "overlapping" that meetings were going on in four
county seats every day, until 85 of the 105 counties had been reached
in this way. The Rev. Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt represented the
National Association, reinforced by a number of able State speakers.
All of these meetings were arranged and managed by Mrs. Johns.

Although obliged to return to New York at that time, in three weeks
Miss Anthony went back to Kansas, arriving the day before the
Republican convention, June 6. Neither she nor Miss Shaw was allowed
to address the resolutions committee, which had been carefully
fortified against all efforts by the appointment as chairman of
ex-Gov. C. V. Eskridge, an active opponent of woman suffrage since the
previous campaign of 1867. Mrs. J. Ellen Foster of Washington, D. C.,
and Mrs. Johns, both strong Republican speakers, were, however,
permitted to present the claims of the women, but the platform was
absolutely silent, not even recognizing the services of Republican
women in municipal politics.

The next Saturday night a mass meeting attended by over 1,000 people
was held in Topeka, Mrs. Diggs presiding, Miss Anthony and Miss Shaw
making the addresses.

Every effort was now put forth to secure a plank from the Populist
convention, June 12. There was great opposition, as the party knew the
approaching struggle would be one of life or death. Gov. L. D.
Lewelling had asserted he would not stand for re-election on a
platform which declared for woman suffrage. While the resolutions
committee was out, Miss Anthony, Miss Shaw and Mrs. Chapman Catt
addressed the convention amidst great enthusiasm. The majority of the
committee, led by its chairman, P. P. Elder, were bitterly opposed to
a suffrage plank. It occupied them most of the night, and was defeated
by 13 yeas, 8 nays. The one woman member, Mrs. Eliza Hudson, brou