eral Suffrage Amendment.

THE TWO STATE CAMPAIGNS.[132]

At the 45th convention of the State Woman Suffrage Association held in
Binghamton Oct. 14-17, 1913, Miss Harriet May Mills declined to stand
for re-election to the presidency. The following officers were
elected: President, Mrs. Raymond Brown, New York City; corresponding
secretary, Mrs. Henry W. Cannon, Delhi; recording secretary, Mrs.
Nicolas Shaw Fraser, Geneseo; treasurer, Mrs. Edward M. Childs, New
York City; directors; Miss Mills, Syracuse; Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore,
Yonkers; Mrs. Helen Probst Abbott, Rochester; Mrs. Dexter P. Rumsey,
Buffalo; Mrs. George W. Topliff, Binghamton; Mrs. Luther Mott, Oswego;
Mrs. Chanler Aldrich, Tarrytown.

This convention had before it work of the gravest importance. The
submission of a woman suffrage amendment had passed one Legislature
and it was almost certain that it would pass a second and be voted on
at the fall election of 1915. New York was recognized as an immensely
difficult State to win. It contained great areas of sparsely settled
country and also many large cities. It had a foreign born population
of 2,500,000 in a total of 9,000,000. The political "machines" of both
Republican and Democratic parties were well intrenched and there was
no doubt that the powerful influence of both would be used to the
utmost against a woman suffrage amendment. Party leaders might allow
it to go through the Legislature because confident of their ability to
defeat it at the polls. The vital problem for the suffragists was how
to organize and unite all the friendly forces.

While the State Suffrage Association was the one which was organized
most extensively there were other important societies. For some years
the Women's Political Union, Mrs. Harriot Stanton Blatch president,
had carried on an effective campaign. The Woman Suffrage Party, a
large group, existed principally in New York City, organized by
assembly districts. The Men's League for Woman Suffrage comprised a
considerable number of influential men, now under the presidency of
James Lees Laidlaw. The College Equal Suffrage League, Mrs. Charles L.
Tiffany, president, was an active body of young women. The Equal
Franchise Society, organized originally among the society women of New
York City by Mrs. Clarence Mackay had Mrs. Howard Mansfield as
president and had helped make the movement "fashionable." This was the
case with Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont's Political Equality Le