tion, which was presented by Senator
Henry W. Hill of Buffalo and Representative E. C. Dowling of Brooklyn.
Mrs. Henry Villard, Mrs. John K. Howe and Mrs. Helen Z. M. Rodgers
were among the suffrage speakers and Mrs. Winslow W. Crannell was
added to the "antis." No committee reports were made. The taxpayers'
bill was also presented in 1906 and 1907 with no results of six years'
work.

Thenceforth the resolution for the constitutional amendment was
introduced every year, in 1908 by Senator Percy Hooker of LeRoy. The
club women had now become interested and the legislators were deluged
with letters and literature. Miss Mary Garrett Hay, Miss Helen Varick
Boswell and Mrs. Harry Hastings headed the large delegation from New
York City for the hearing. Mrs. Crossett informed the Judiciary
Committee that during the past year woman suffrage had been officially
endorsed by the New York City Federation of Labor with 250,000
members; State Grange with 75,000; New York City Federation of Women's
Clubs with 35,000; Woman's Christian Temperance Union with 30,000 and
many other organizations. F. A. Byrne spoke for the City Central Labor
Union. Mrs. Francis M. Scott represented the Anti-Suffrage
Association. Morris Hilquit and Mrs. Meta Stern spoke independently
for the Socialists, making a strong appeal for the amendment. The
Senate took no action and Speaker James W. Wadsworth, Jr., was able to
defeat any consideration by the Lower House. During the following
summer mass meetings were held in every city on the Hudson River
addressed by Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, now president of the National
Suffrage Association, and other noted speakers and a vast amount of
work was done in the State.

In the Legislature of 1909 Senator Hill and Representative Frederick
R. Toombs introduced the resolution. At the hearing the Assembly
Chamber was filled to overflowing. Mrs. Villard, chairman of the
Legislative Committee, presided.[128] People stood four hours
listening to the speeches and returned to a suffrage mass meeting at
night. Mrs. William Force Scott and Miss Margaret Doane Gardner spoke
for the "antis." Mrs. Crossett asked of the committee: "Does it mean
nothing to you that 40,000 women in this State are organized to secure
the franchise; that a few years ago 600,000 people signed the petition
for woman suffrage to the constitutional convention; that associations
formed for other purposes representing hundreds of thousands of
members have endo