e and none against it. Mrs. Howe
and Mr. Blackwell spoke in behalf of the measures asked for by the
suffrage association, and a large number of prominent women for the W.
C. T. U. Mr. Russell, Mrs. J. Elliott Cabot, Frank Foxcroft, Miss
Dewey, Dr. Walter Channing, Mrs. A. J. George, A. Lawrence Lowell and
Miss Mary A. J. McIntyre spoke against all three bills. Miss
Blackwell, at the close, replied in behalf of both associations.
Members of the committee asked the president of the anti-suffrage
association, Mrs. Cabot, and almost all the women who spoke on that
side whether they would vote for or against license if they had the
ballot. Everyone answered that she would vote for license. Mr. Russell
had declared that if women were allowed to vote, "no license would be
carried in every town and city of the commonwealth, contrary to the
will of the people." The committee gave a majority report against all
the bills.

On March 10 the question of accepting the adverse report on License
Suffrage came up in the Legislature. The vote stood, 100 yeas, 100
nays, and Speaker John L. Bates gave his casting vote in favor of
substituting the bill for the adverse report. On March 18 the question
was debated and the vote resulted in 108 yeas, 125 nays. There was
much public interest and a lively discussion in the papers. Municipal
and Presidential Suffrage were lost without a roll-call. A bill to
make the Boston School Board appointive instead of elective, which
would have deprived women of their School Suffrage, was defeated.

_1898_--The hearing on February 2 was conducted by Mr. Blackwell for
the petitioners; Mr. Russell for the remonstrants. A letter from
ex-Gov. William Claflin in favor of suffrage was read. Mrs. Anna
Christy Fall, Mr. Garrison, ex-U. S. Attorney Frank B. Allen, Mrs.
Helen Adelaide Shaw, Dr. A. E. Winship, editor of the _Journal of
Education_, and others spoke for suffrage; Mrs. Arthur D. Gilman, Mrs.
Egbert C. Smythe, Mrs. Rothery of Wellesley, Mrs. Lincoln R. Stone
and Mrs. George against it. Miss Blackwell replied for the
petitioners. The committee reported "leave to withdraw." On February
14, after debate in the House of Representatives, the vote stood 44
yeas, 97 nays.

On February 23 the committee gave a hearing on Municipal Suffrage and
on License Suffrage, both of which were eloquently urged. Mrs. Cabot,
Mrs. Charles E. Guild, the Rev. Thomas Van Ness, the Rev. Reuen
Thomas, Mrs. Henry F. Durant, Mrs. Wi