the
establishment of national
headquarters in the
State of New York. For a long time the associa-
tion's
headquarters had been in Warren, Ohio, the
home of Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton, then national
treasurer, and it was felt that their
removal to a
larger city would have a great influence in develop-
ing the work. In 1909 Mrs. Belmont attended as
a
delegate the meeting of the International Suffrage
Alliance in London, and her interest in the Cause
deepened. She became convinced that the head-
quarters of the association should be in New York
City, and at our Seattle convention that same year
I presented to the
delegates her
generous offer to
pay the rent and
maintain a press department for
two years, on condition that our national head-
quarters were established in New York.
This
proposition was most
gratefully" target="_blank" title="ad.感激地">
gratefully accepted,
and we
promptly secured
headquarters in one of
the most
desirable buildings on Fifth Avenue. The
wisdom of the change was demonstrated at once by
the
extraordinary growth of the work. During our
last year in Warren, for example, the proceeds from
the sale of our
literature were between $1,200 and
$1,300. During the first year in New York our
returns from such sales were between $13,000 and
$14,000, and an equal growth was
evident in our
other departments.
At the end of two years Mrs. Belmont ceased to
support the press department or to pay the rent,
but her
timely aid had put us on our feet, and we
were able to continue our splendid progress and to
meet our expenses.
The special event of 1908 was the successful com-
pletion of the fund President M. Carey Thomas of
Bryn Mawr and Miss Mary Garrett had promised in
1906 to raise for the Cause. For some time after Miss
Anthony's death nothing more was said of this, but
I knew those two indefatigable friends were not idle,
and ``Aunt Susan'' had died in the
blessed conviction
that their success was certain. In 1907 I received a
letter from Miss Thomas telling me that the project
was progressing; and later she sent an
outline of
her plan, which was to ask a certain number of
wealthy persons to give five hundred dollars a year
each for a term of years. In all, a fund of $60,000
was to be raised, of which we were to have $12,000
a year for five years; $4,500 of the $12,000 was to
be paid in salaries to three active officers, and the
remaining $7,500 was to go toward the work of the
association. The entire fund was to be raised by
May 1, 1908, she added, or the plan would be
dropped.
I was on a lecture tour in Ohio in April, 1908,
when one night, as I was starting for the hall where
the lecture was to be given, my telephone bell rang.
``Long distance wants you,'' the
operator said, and
the next minute a voice I recognized as that of Miss
Thomas was
offering congratulations. ``The last
dollar of the $60,000,'' she added, ``was pledged at
four o'clock this afternoon.''
I was so
overcome by the news that I dropped the
receiver and shook in a
violentnervous attack,
and this trembling continued throughout my lecture.
It had not seemed possible that such a burden could
be lifted from my shoulders; $7,500 a year would
greatly aid our work, and $4,500 a year, even though
divided among three officers, would be a most wel-
come help to each. As
subsequently" target="_blank" title="a.其次,接着">
subsequently arranged,
the salaries did not come to us through the National
Association treasury; they were paid directly by
Miss Thomas and Miss Garrett as custodians of the
fund. So it is quite correct to say that no salaries
have ever been paid by the National Association to
its officers.
Three years later, in 1911, another
glorious sur-
prise came to me in a very innocent-looking letter.
It was one of many in a heavy mail, and I opened it
absent-mindedly, for the day had been problem-filled.
The
writer stated very simply that she wished
to put a large
amount into my hands to invest,
to draw on, and to use for the Cause as I saw fit.
The matter was to be a secret between us, and she
wished no
subsequent accounting, as she had entire
faith in my
ability to put the money to the best
possible use.
The
proposition rather dazed me, but I rallied my
forces and replied that I was
infinitelygrateful, but
that the
amount she mentioned was a large one and I
would much prefer to share the
responsibility of dis-
bursing it. Could she not select one more person, at
least, to share the secret and act with me? She re-
plied, telling me to make the
selection, if I insisted on
having a confidante, and I sent her the names of Miss
Thomas and Miss Garrett, suggesting that as Miss
Thomas had done so much of the work in con-
nection with the $60,000 fund, Miss Garrett might
be
willing to accept the detail work of this fund.
My friend replied that either of these ladies would
be
perfectlysatisfactory to her. She knew them
both, she said, and I was to arrange the matter as I
chose, as it rested
wholly in my hands.
I used this money in
subsequent state
campaigns,
and I am very sure that to it was largely due the
winning of Arizona, Kansas, and Oregon in 1912,
and of Montana and Nevada in 1914. It enabled
us for the first time to establish
headquarters, se-
cure an office force, and engage
campaign speakers.
I also spent some of it in the states we lost then
but will win later--Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan--
using in all more than fifteen thousand dollars. In
September, 1913, I received another check from the
same friend, showing that she at least was satisfied
with the results we had achieved.
``It goes to you with my love,'' she wrote, ``and
my
earnest hopes for further success--not the least
of this a crowning of your
faithful,
earnest, splendid
work for our
beloved Cause. How
blessed it is that
you are our president and leader!''
I had talked to this woman only twice in my life,
and I had not seen her for years when her first check
came; so her confidence in me was an even greater
gift than her royal donation toward our Cause.
XIV
RECENT CAMPAIGNS
The
interval between the
winning of Idaho and
Utah in 1896 and that of Washington in 1910
seemed very long to lovers of the Cause. We were
working as hard as ever--harder, indeed, for the