In 1915 the Congressional Union decided to put its efforts into organizing in every state that did not already have a branch. The goal of this plan was to continue what their 1914 state-by-state campaign had started and make suffrage a national issue with demand in every state. In 1915 Burns also became the editor of the Congressional Union's newspaper "The Suffragist". During this time period, NAWSA was experiencing a lot of internal strife. After their convention in 1915, Anna Howard Shaw stepped down as president, and many believed this would be a time for potential reconciliation between the Congressional Union and NAWSA.