n
obtaining a woman suffrage plank in the Democratic State platform. The
total income for the year was $17,779.

In 1915 at the State convention in Hartford Mrs. Hepburn was again
re-elected. The reports included accounts of the activities of the
sixty-nine clubs and leagues affiliated with the State association. In
the Legislature not only had the suffrage measures been turned down
but almost all of those favored by the women, owing to the bitter
hostility of the Republican "machine," by which it had long been
dominated. This convention declared in favor of concentrating on State
work, the majority opinion being that it was as yet of no use to work
for the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The income for the year was
reported as $19,476, this being entirely apart from the money received
and spent locally by the affiliated leagues. During the year a
petition to submit a State amendment with over 43,000 names of men and
women had been collected and presented to the Legislature.[23]

The convention of 1916 was held at New Haven and Mrs. Hepburn was
re-elected. The reports showed that the year then ended had been the
most active in the history of the association. In the winter of
1915-16 work had been undertaken in the counties whose Representatives
had made the worst showing in the preceding Legislature. Miss Helen
Todd, who had worked in California in 1911 when its victory was
gained, was secured as the principal speaker for a campaign organized
for her by Miss Catharine Flanagan of Hartford. Other organizers were
Miss Alice Pierson of Cromwell, Miss Katherine Mullen of New Haven and
Miss Daphne Selden of Deep River, Miss Emily Pierson remaining State
organizer and directing the work. In the spring of 1916 Miss Alice
Pierson married Ralph Swetman and during the summer both undertook a
house to house campaign, with numerous open air meetings in the
smaller towns of Hartford county. The income for the year was $27,442,
nearly all of which was expended. The membership of the State
association by careful count was 32,366 and the affiliated leagues
and clubs numbered eighty-one. During the year a bulletin from
headquarters was sent twice a month to each dues-paying member. In
June a delegation went to Chicago and marched under the leadership of
Mrs. Grace Gallatin Seton in the great parade of the National Suffrage
Association that braved the rain and wind on its way to the Coliseum,
where the cause of woman suffrage was presented