he first chairman was Mrs. Gertrude Halladay
Leonard. A convention was held in Faneuil Hall on March 5, 1912, at
which time twenty-three of the twenty-six Boston wards had been
organized, also Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and many
other cities and towns. The membership was 25,000 and by the
referendum campaign in 1915 it had advanced to about 250,000.

This change in the type of organization was indicative of a change in
the whole suffrage movement. It was recognized that more widely
diffused education on the subject was needed and that suffrage must
become a political issue. The suffrage leagues were changed into
political district organizations; the parlor meeting gave place to the
outdoor meeting; State headquarters were moved from No. 6 Marlboro
Street, a residential section, to 585 Boylston Street in a business
building, and local societies were kept in touch. Every effort was
made to reach labor unions and other organizations of men with
speakers and educational propaganda and to carry information to the
man in the street, who often had never heard of the Woman Suffrage
Association. The executive board met every two weeks and later every
week or oftener. Mrs. Page, its chairman, was followed in 1911 by Mrs.
Marion Booth Kelley; in 1912 by Mrs. Gertrude B. Newell, and in May,
1913, Mrs. Leonard was elected and served to October, 1917. Upon her
resignation Mrs. Grace A. Johnson was chosen, who was succeeded by
Mrs. Charles Sumner Bird.

In 1912 a new State organization, called the Political Equality Union,
was formed, with Miss Mabel Gillespie as chairman, Mrs. FitzGerald as
secretary and Dr. Lily Burbank as treasurer, which made a special
effort to reach the labor men and women. As the vote on the
constitutional amendment approached, in order that there might be no
overlapping, ten per cent. of the State was assigned as a field for
the work of the Union and the rest for that of the State association.
The two cooperated in legislative work. The Union disbanded in
November, 1916, advising its members to join the State association.

CAMPAIGN. Through the campaign year of 1914, preceding the vote on a
constitutional amendment, which had been submitted by the Legislature,
the association kept five salaried speakers continually in the field,
besides numerous volunteers. On the list of the speakers' bureau there
were 125 women and 76 men. The State and the Boston headquarters had a
large office force, and i