Max Eastman, a young professor in Columbia University, but in a sketch
of the league by him in _The Trend_ in 1913 he said that in 1909, when
he went to consult Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the New York
_Evening Post_, he found that Mr. Villard had received a letter from
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman
Suffrage Association, asking him to organize such a league; that he
had conferred with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and they had "agreed to share
the ignominy" if some one would undertake the organizing. This was
done by Mr. Eastman, who, armed with letters of introduction by Mr.
Villard, succeeded in getting the names of twelve men of civic
influence. Using these names he sent out several thousand letters to
such men over the State and finally obtained twenty-five members. In
November, 1910, the first meeting was held at the New York City Club
and officers were elected. By good fortune George Foster Peabody was
one of the earliest members, a Georgian by birth and one of New
York's prominent bankers and financiers. He consented to serve as
president and with this prestige many members were secured. "The
league owed its pecuniary life to him," said Mr. Eastman, "and a great
part of its early standing before the public."

After the first year the league was equally fortunate in having James
Lees Laidlaw, another New York banker and man of affairs, take the
presidency. He retained it for the next six years, and when the
National Men's League was formed he consented to serve also as its
president until the contest for woman suffrage was finished, giving
active and constant assistance. Mr. Eastman was secretary of the New
York League for a year or more, assisted by Ward Melville, and was
succeeded by Robert Cameron Beadle, general manager of the U. S.
Stoker Corporation. He gave valuable and continuous service to the
league until just before the campaign of 1917, when the pressure of
business required his time and he became vice-president and George
Creel ably filled the office of secretary during that strenuous
period.

In 1910 the league took part in the first big suffrage parade and no
act of men during the whole history of woman suffrage required more
courage than that of the 87 who marched up Fifth Avenue on that
occasion, jeered by the crowds that lined the sidewalks. It was a body
of representative citizens, led by Mr. Peabody, Mr. Laidlaw and Mr.
Villard. The league became a large organ