onal Judiciary Committee and delegates to the National
party conventions were urged to support suffrage planks. When these
planks were secured in the national platforms of all parties during
the summer the victory was celebrated with a mass meeting in Faneuil
Hall.

In 1917 Massachusetts held a Constitutional Convention. The Act
calling it, in describing those to whom its recommendations should be
submitted for ratification, used the word "people." A bill drawn by
Mrs. Crowley was filed in the Legislature by the State Suffrage
Association asking that women be considered people within the meaning
of this Act. The Senate asked the opinion of the State Supreme Court
as to its constitutionality and she filed a brief. The Supreme Court
decided adversely and in view of the rapid advance of the Federal
Suffrage Amendment the association decided that no State amendment
should be submitted by the convention.

The directions of the National Suffrage Association for congressional
work were carried out. Federal Amendment meetings were held, thousands
of letters sent to members of Congress from their districts and about
500 telegrams sent just before the vote was taken in 1918. The
amendment lacked but one vote of passing the U. S. Senate and it
became necessary to defeat at least one among the anti-suffrage
Senators who were coming up for re-election, so it was decided to
defeat Senator John W. Weeks in Massachusetts. His reactionary record
was spread before the Republican voters by 370,000 circulars and
advertisements in Republican papers. A special campaign among the
working men was made by members of the Women's Trade Union League,
under the leadership of Miss Mabel Gillespie, and among the Jewish
voters, who were normally Republican, under the leadership of Mrs.
Joseph Fels and Mrs. Lillian E. deHaas of New York. The great
popularity of President Wilson at this time was of assistance and also
that of the Democratic candidate for the Senate, ex-Governor Walsh. A
special letter was sent to every listed member of the State
association asking that at least one vote be secured against Mr.
Weeks, with a spirited appeal by Mrs. Ames, who belonged to a
prominent Republican family. Mr. Walsh was elected by about 20,000
majority, the first Democratic U. S. Senator from Massachusetts since
the Civil War.

The Congressional Committee, Mrs. Ames, chairman, sent more than 5,000
letters and telegrams asking suffragists in the State to wri