uch
courtesy.

It is difficult to give even the barest outline of the work of the
Press Bureau, at first under the management of Mrs. Haryot Holt Dey
and later of Miss Rose Young, with a volunteer force of 214 press
chairmen over the State. There were 2,136 publications in the State,
211 dailies, 1,117 weeklies, 628 monthlies, and 180 foreign
publications printed in twenty-five languages. To the weeklies a
bulletin from the central bureau went regularly; 3,036 shipments were
made of pages of plate matter. The American Press Association and the
Western Newspaper Union for many weeks sent out columns of suffrage
news with their regular service for the patent inside page used by
country papers. The bureau furnished material for debates and answered
attacks against suffrage. The support given by the newspapers was of
great value. Of the fifteen dailies of New York City ten were
pro-suffrage, while the rural press was overwhelmingly in favor. Most
of the papers of the larger cities up-state were opposed, although
there were notable exceptions.

There were several high water marks. On Nov. 6, 1914, just a year
before the election, at a mass meeting which packed Carnegie Hall,
$115,000 were pledged, the largest sum ever raised at a suffrage
meeting, a visible proof of the great increase in favorable sentiment
since the campaign had begun a year ago, when the $20,000 which Mrs.
Catt wanted as the original guarantee seemed almost impossible of
attainment. In May, 1915, a luncheon attended by 1,400 people pledged
$50,000. On October 23, ten days before election, there occurred in
New York City the largest parade ever organized in the United States
for suffrage, called the "banner parade" because of the multitude of
flags and banners which characterized it, only those for suffrage
being permitted. There were 33,783 women who marched up Fifth Avenue,
past a crowd of spectators which was record-breaking, taking from 2
o'clock in the afternoon until long after dark. The rear was brought
up by scores of motor cars gaily decorated with Chinese lanterns and
after darkness fell the avenue was a solid mass of moving colored
lights. There seemed no end to the women who were determined to win
the vote and a multitude of men seemed to be ready to grant it.

On Nov. 2, 1915, the vote took place. Every preparation had been made
and every precaution taken, as far as the strength of the organization
would permit, to secure a fair election an