With but two exceptions State conventions or conferences were held every year, always in Atlanta until 1919, in the Congregational and Universalist churches, in the Grand Building, the hall of the Federation of Labor, the Carnegie Library, the Hotel Ansley and the Piedmont Hotel. The membership gradually increased, a series of literary meetings in the winter of 1902 adding fifty names. This year a committee was appointed to revise the charter of Atlanta and the officers of the a.s.sociation appeared before it and asked that it include Munic.i.p.al suffrage for women. The sub-committee on franchises recommended that instead it provide for women on school, hospital, park and health boards, but the general committee reported adversely.
The Atlanta branch protested to Mayor Livingstone Mims against the injustice of not allowing women taxpayers to vote on the proposed $400,000 bond issue. He expressed himself in favor of woman suffrage and promised to bring the matter before the city council, but there was no result.
Miss Kate M. Gordon, national corresponding secretary, gave a most convincing address in the Carnegie Library the next year, 1903, on how the taxpaying women of Louisiana won the right to vote on questions of taxation; strong articles were published, but all the women were able to do was to post large placards at the polls, "Taxpaying women should be allowed to vote at this bond election." Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, national vice-president-at-large, came to a.s.sist at the State convention and delivered her famous lecture, "The Fate of Republics."
This year the a.s.sociation distributed 10,000 pages of suffrage literature at the Interstate Fair. It attempted to bring a bill before the Legislature for police matrons but not a member would introduce it.
During these years the suffragists found it very difficult to persuade a legislator to present a bill for raising the age of consent or compulsory education in order to take the young children out of the factories or for the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women. In 1905, at the request of the National a.s.sociation that fraternal greetings should be sent to various organizations, Mrs. McLendon, who had been a member of the Women"s Christian Temperance Union since 1890, carried them to its convention and made an earnest but unsuccessful effort to have it adopt a franchise department. Thousands of pieces of suffrage literature were distributed at the State Fair. In 1906 memorial services were held for the great leader, Susan B. Anthony, and the a.s.sociation carried out to its full power all the State work planned by the National Board, including a pet.i.tion to the Legislature to pa.s.s a resolution asking Congress to submit a Federal Suffrage Amendment.
The membership of the a.s.sociation was increased in 1907 by the addition of three prominent W. C. T. U. officials, Mrs. J. J. Ansley, Mrs. Jennie Hart Sibley and Mrs. L. W. Walker, who were promptly appointed superintendents of Church Work, Legislation and Pet.i.tion and Christian Citizenship. Miss Jean Gordon of New Orleans and Mrs.
Florence Kelley of New York made splendid addresses in favor of woman suffrage when they came to Atlanta in April to attend the Child Labor Convention. Dr. Shaw gave a stirring suffrage speech in the hall of the House of Representatives on May 4.
The evening sessions of the annual convention in 1908 were held in the Senate Chamber of the Capitol. Miss Laura Clay, Mrs. Sibley, Miss H.
Augusta Howard and W. S. Witham were the speakers, with Mrs. McLendon presiding. Miss Clay"s address, ent.i.tled Who Works Against Woman Suffrage? created a profound impression and she was of much a.s.sistance. Mrs. McLendon was invited to speak before the convention of the Georgia Agricultural a.s.sociation, one of the oldest in the State, on Woman"s Education and Woman"s Rights. A rising vote of thanks was accorded her and the address ordered printed in the minutes. The State Prohibition convention placed a strong woman suffrage plank in its platform and the delegates to the national convention were instructed to vote for one if it was offered. Mr.
Witham, the Rev. James A. Gordon and Mr. Barker, editor of _The Southern Star_, worked faithfully for this plank.
In 1909, at the request of the National a.s.sociation, letters were written to Georgia"s Senators and Representatives in Congress, asking them to vote for a Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment. Polite but non-committal replies were received from Senators Clay and Bacon and Representatives Griggs and Lewis. The other eight evidently did not consider disfranchised women worthy of an answer. The city council of Atlanta decided that its charter was forty years behind the times and again a committee of forty-nine men was appointed to draw up a new one. The Civic League, an Atlanta auxiliary to the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, set to work to have this new charter recognize the rights of the women taxpayers. It was discovered that the women paid taxes on more than $13,000,000 worth of real and personal property in the city.
Several hundred personal letters were written to leading taxpaying women asking their opinion of the league"s movement; only favorable replies were received and many friends of the cause developed among the influential women. Strong articles were published in the city papers and widely copied throughout the State, but the charter entirely ignored the claims of women. Many letters were written to Republican and Democratic delegates asking them to vote for a suffrage plank in their platforms. The annual convention was not held in Macon, as intended, because there was so much sentiment against it in that city. This year women in the Methodist Church South became active to secure laity rights, which had been granted to women members in the North, East and West after they had worked years for it, but the bishops in the South were bitterly opposed to it. Mrs. Mary Harris Armor, the well-known national organizer and lecturer for the W. C.
T. U., and four years president for Georgia, joined the suffrage a.s.sociation.
The National a.s.sociation"s pet.i.tion to Congress had been distributed throughout the State for signatures and returned to Washington. In 1910 letters were written to President Taft, to the members of Congress from Georgia and to Governor "Joe" Brown, as requested by Dr.
Shaw, national president. Senator Clay and Representatives W. C.
Brantley, S. A. Roddenberry and W. C. Adamson were the only ones who could spare time to answer. Atlanta was to have an election for a three-million dollar bond issue on February 15, Susan B. Anthony"s birthday, and the Mayor and president of the Chamber of Commerce had appealed to the City Federation of Women"s Clubs to "make the men go to the polls to vote for bonds." The suffragists distributed broadcast a poster headed by a cartoon by Louis Gregg representing women of all sorts, armed with brooms, umbrellas, rolling pins, etc., driving the men to the polls.
Over 6,000 pages of suffrage literature were distributed in the State, a considerable amount of it to young people engaging in debates or writing essays. Dr. James W. Lee and Dr. Frank M. Siler, Methodist ministers of Atlanta, fearlessly expressed themselves in their pulpits as in favor of the enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of women, regardless of the fact that Bishop Warren A. Candler was bitterly opposed to it. Dr. Len G.
Broughton of the Baptist church and Dr. Dean Ellenwood of the Universalist also declared themselves as favoring equal rights in Church and State for women. Judge John L. Hopkins, one of Georgia"s foremost lawyers, who codified the laws, proclaimed himself a believer in equal rights for women in a letter to the _Const.i.tution_. In June when it was again proposed to revise the charter of Atlanta, a committee from the Civic League went before the charter committee and presented a pet.i.tion asking Munic.i.p.al suffrage for women. Later at a meeting of the city council the pet.i.tion was brought up for consideration and was treated with ridicule and contempt. On August 8 the a.s.sociation held its convention in the hall of the Federation of Labor, its true friend. Walter McElreath of Fulton county offered a resolution that the House of Representatives should be tendered for the evening session, but Joe Bill Hall, a noted anti-prohibitionist and anti-suffragist, marshalled the liquor men and they defeated it.
In 1912 the State a.s.sociation conformed to the plan of the National and appointed a committee of education, who would offer money prizes for the best essays on woman suffrage by the seniors of the high schools, with Mrs. Helmer chairman and Miss Koch secretary. It worked vigorously for the bill to permit women to practice law. Mrs. Rebecca Latimer Felton became a member and was elected a delegate to the national suffrage convention in Philadelphia. Attorney Leonard J.
Grossman joined the a.s.sociation and was made general counsel.
In 1913, while Mr. Grossman was attending the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation as a delegate, he was requested by James Lees Laidlaw, president of the National Men"s League for Woman Suffrage, to undertake the organization of a Georgia Men"s League. He did so immediately on returning home, with the following officers: President, Mr. Grossman; vice-presidents, the Rev.
Fred A. Line, the Rev. J. Wade Conkling, C. W. McClure, Dr. Frank Peck, E. L. Martin, ex-president Macon Chamber of Commerce; S. B.
Marks and L. Marquardt, ex-presidents of the State Federation of Labor. Mr. Grossman toured the State on behalf of woman suffrage under the joint auspices of the Men"s League and the State a.s.sociation. He drafted, at their request, proposed bills and ratification resolutions; appeared before the annual conventions of the Federation of Labor, obtaining their formal endors.e.m.e.nt of woman suffrage; secured also the endors.e.m.e.nt of the Civic Educational League, comprising a great majority of the Jewish citizens of Atlanta; occupied church pulpits and addressed women"s clubs, civic bodies, city councils and legislative committees. The members of the Men"s League gave whatever a.s.sistance was required.
The many State victories in 1912 put new life into the movement in 1913. The Georgia Young People"s Suffrage a.s.sociation was organized with Miss Ruth Buckholz as president. To represent the a.s.sociation Mrs. Amelia R. Woodall, corresponding, and Miss Katherine Koch, recording secretary; Miss Mamie Matthews, treasurer of the young people"s society, Mrs. Landis Sanna, Mrs. Margaret Gardner, editor Trox Bankston of West Point and J. J. Williams of Chatterton, were sent to Washington to march in the parade on March 3. They carried the suffrage flag made for the national convention in Atlanta in 1895, with two handsome yellow banners prepared especially for the parade.
Five bills before the Legislature were supported this year as well as the Federal Amendment. When Presidential suffrage was given to Illinois women in 1913, the Atlanta _Const.i.tution_ was so impressed with the "nearness" of woman suffrage that it created a suffrage department and offered the editorship to Mrs. McLendon. U. S. Senators Hoke Smith and Augustus O. Bacon had been obliged to present the pet.i.tion of Georgia suffragists asking for the Federal Amendment, but no beautiful speeches were made by them. Senator Smith had been on record all his life as being "unalterably opposed to woman suffrage"
and voted against it whenever he had opportunity, adding insult to injury by declaring, "Our best women do not want it." Senator W. S.
West, who succeeded Senator Bacon, was more amenable to reason, but Senator Thomas W. Hardwick, who followed after Mr. West"s death, has been an implacable opponent. For the second time the Atlanta Federation tendered the use of its beautiful Temple of Labor for the day sessions of the State convention which met July 9, 10. The Legislature was persuaded by John Y. Smith of Fulton county to permit an evening session in the House of Representatives. Senator Starke opposed the use of the Senate Chamber "because Christ did not select women for his Disciples" but saner counsels prevailed and it was opened for a session.
During 1914 there were 275 meetings in Atlanta, Rome, Athens, Decatur, Macon and Bainbridge by the auxiliary societies, with five open air meetings. On March 1 a ma.s.s meeting was held in the Atlanta theater to which members of the Legislature were especially invited. The speakers were officers of the National a.s.sociation, including the vice-president, Miss Jane Addams. To enlarge the scope of the work there was organized in February the Woman Suffrage Party Incorporated, as a branch of the State a.s.sociation, with Mrs. McLendon president.
It secured a charter and prepared for an aggressive state-wide suffrage campaign. A chairman for each of the twelve congressional districts was appointed and instructed to organize in her district.
This year for the first time a hearing was granted before the House Committee on Const.i.tutional Amendments. Mrs. Felton and Mrs. Rose Ashby spoke for the a.s.sociation, Mrs. Cheatham and Mrs. Frances Smith Whiteside for the Woman Suffrage League. The a.s.sociation distributed 40,000 pages of leaflets, fliers, newspapers, etc.; about a dozen of the leading newspapers were supplied with local and national suffrage news and members of the Legislature with suffrage literature. In 1900, when the first National W. C. T. U. convention was held in Atlanta, woman suffrage was a forbidden subject at all temperance meetings in Georgia. In 1914, when the second was held, Mrs. McLendon, president of the State Suffrage a.s.sociation, was selected to welcome the White Ribb.o.n.e.rs in behalf of the suffragists of the State.[35]
The annual convention of the State a.s.sociation was held July 21, 22, in the ballroom of the Hotel Ansley, beautifully decorated for the occasion. Miss Kate M. Gordon aided largely in making it a success.
Mrs. Annie Fletcher of Oldham, England, visited Atlanta this year and spoke on the suffrage situation there. Mrs. Georgia McIntyre Wheeler, a practicing attorney of West Virginia, helped greatly in securing the Woman Lawyer Bill. Atlanta and Waycross suffragists applied to the city governments to grant women Munic.i.p.al suffrage. The a.s.sociation did not parade on May 2, as requested by the National Board, but the president made a suffrage speech on the steps of the State Capitol and members sold copies of the _Woman"s Journal_. The Rev. A. M. Hewlett, pastor of St. Marks Methodist Church South, accompanied Mrs. McLendon and Attorney Grossman to c.o.x College in March and by invitation of its president they gave addresses in favor of suffrage for women before the student body. There was a growing sentiment in favor of it among clergymen of various denominations.
The State convention was held in Atlanta Nov. 15-20, 1915, at the same time as the harvest festival, and the first suffrage parade took place, led by Miss Eleanor Raoul on horseback. Mrs. McLendon followed in the little yellow car which once belonged to Dr. Shaw, driven by Mrs. Loring Raoul. As a protest against taxation without representation Dr. Shaw allowed it to be sold for taxes and it was bought by Miss Sallie Fannie Gleaton of Conyers, who walked behind it in the parade. The suffrage carriages were decorated with yellow, those of the W. C. T. U. with white. Mrs. William R. Woodall, president of the Atlanta a.s.sociation, and Miss Katherine Koch had carried on a suffrage school the first and second Wednesdays from February 24 to December 1. The motion picture suffrage play Your Girl and Mine had been put on in the Grand Opera House. The branch in Rome published an official organ called _The Woman"s Magazine_.
In February, 1916, the State a.s.sociation and its three auxiliaries in Atlanta worked with the Equal Suffrage Party and the Woman Suffrage League to secure 10,000 names to a pet.i.tion to the city council asking for the Munic.i.p.al franchise. State Senator Helen Ring Robinson of Colorado and Mesdames Brooks, Kenney and Horine of Washington, D. C., came to their a.s.sistance. There were street speaking from automobiles at night and meetings at private residences and they secured over 9,000 names. The city council gave a hearing, the Hon. Claude Peyton making the presentation speech. The members listened apathetically and appeared much relieved when Attorney Robert M. Blackburn a.s.sured them they could not give women Munic.i.p.al suffrage, as the State const.i.tution declared only male citizens could vote. Letters were sent to the delegates to the two national conventions of the dominant political parties, asking them to put a strong suffrage plank in their platforms and Mrs. Woodall and Mrs. Laura Couzzens responded to Mrs.
Catt"s call for marchers at the Chicago and St. Louis conventions.
Governor N. E. Harris refused to include woman suffrage in the call for the special session of the Legislature which made the State "bone dry," but this year it enacted a number of laws for which the a.s.sociation had long worked.
On Feb. 12, 13, 1917, officers of the National a.s.sociation held a suffrage school in Atlanta. When the Legislature a.s.sembled in June all the members found on their desks a notice that bills granting Munic.i.p.al suffrage to women, also full suffrage, and one to raise the age of consent from 10 years to 18 would be introduced. The State a.s.sociation sent the national suffrage organ, the _Woman Citizen_, for a year to the United States Senators and fourteen Representatives in Congress; to the members of the Legislature and all State officials.
The Atlanta a.s.sociation again conducted a three months" suffrage school. The State convention in December in the a.s.sembly Hall of the Piedmont Hotel closed with a luncheon at which many prominent men and women were present. Representatives John C. White and John Y. Smith at that time pledged themselves to introduce and work for suffrage bills.
During this and the following year the suffrage a.s.sociations did their full share of war work. Mrs. McLendon represented the State a.s.sociation on the Women"s Council of National Defense, and Mrs.
Martin, first vice-president, was chairman of the State Americanization Committee.
In 1918 the Parent-Teacher a.s.sociation adopted strong suffrage resolutions. The Baptist and Methodist churches South granted laity rights to women. State suffrage headquarters were deluged with requests for literature by educational inst.i.tutions for debates. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Professor M. L. Brittain, had been an advocate of votes for women many years. The Atlanta _Journal_ gave the State a.s.sociation a column in its Sunday issues, which Mrs. Martin edited. Raymond E. White wrote a number of fine suffrage editorials for the _Const.i.tution_. In July the Hearst papers circulated a pet.i.tion for a Federal Suffrage Amendment and the Atlanta a.s.sociation secured 5,000 names and other auxiliaries 1,000.
On May 3, 1919, a progressive city Democratic Central Committee gave Atlanta women the right to vote in the Munic.i.p.al primary election to be held September 3. A Central Committee of Women Citizens was at once elected at a ma.s.s meeting of women to see that they registered and nearly 4,000 did so, paying one dollar for the privilege.
Mrs. McLendon represented the State a.s.sociation at the convention of the National a.s.sociation in St. Louis in March, 1919. On May 21 she and her sister, Mrs. Felton, sat in the House of Representatives in Washington and had the pleasure of hearing W. D. Upshaw, member from the fifth congressional district of Georgia, vote for the submission of the Federal Suffrage Amendment, the only Representative from the State to do so. On June 4 the new U. S. Senator, William J. Harris of Georgia, voted for the submission of this amendment, giving one of the long needed two votes. The official board of the State a.s.sociation through Mrs. McLendon mailed to each member of the Legislature a personal letter with copies of letters from Mrs. J. K. Ottley, the Democratic Executive Committee woman from Georgia, and the eminent clergyman, Dr. J. B. Gambrell, urging the members to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The annual convention of 1919 was held in the auditorium of the Hotel Piedmont, Atlanta, on December 5.
A League of Women Voters was organized in Atlanta in March, 1920, out of the Equal Suffrage Party, but the State a.s.sociation decided that this action was premature, since there were no women voters in Georgia, and that the old a.s.sociation, organized in 1890, would never disband until women could vote on the same terms as men.
On June 1, in response to a pet.i.tion of fifty representative women of Atlanta, a hearing in charge of Mrs. McLendon was granted by the chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee, at the request of Mayor Key. After a number had spoken a motion was made to let the women vote in the white munic.i.p.al primary in Atlanta and was carried with only four negative votes. The Atlanta and the Young People"s Suffrage a.s.sociations endorsed the re-election of Mayor Key and worked for him, and he was returned by a majority of three to one on July 28.
Afterwards several other cities and villages permitted women to vote in the primaries and on bond issues.
After the Federal Suffrage Amendment was ratified in August 1920, it was announced that women would not be permitted to register and vote in the primary on September 8 and the runover primary of October 6 for the general election because they had not registered for it in April and May, which they had no right to do. When the Legislature had a.s.sembled June 23, Mrs. McLendon, Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Woodall had called on Representatives Covington and John Y. Smith and Senators Elders Dorris and Pittman and begged them to introduce an Enabling Act to provide for the women to vote in November if the 19th Amendment should be ratified. They promised faithfully to do this and the Senators did so, but it was held back. The Representatives never did introduce it. Mrs. McLendon then appealed to Governor Dorsey, but he was candidate for U. S. Senator and had no time to attend to it. The Legislature adjourned and the women were left in the lurch.
Then Mrs. McLendon decided to make a test and see if women could not vote in the primary on September 8, as the returned soldiers who did not reach Georgia before May were allowed to vote in all elections without registering. She wired to Senator Fermor Barrett of Stevens county, chairman of the sub-committee of the State Democratic Executive Committee, asking him to call it together and see if it could provide some way. He called it to meet in Atlanta on September 3, and he and H. H. Dean made speeches and voted to try to arrange it, but the other five members voted against it. Mrs. McLendon then went to the chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee and he refused to take any action, saying, "Our committee is only the agent of the State committee and must obey its mandates." Then she and Mrs.
Julia H. Ellington, Mrs. Jane Adkins and Mrs. Nancy Duncan called on the tax collector and asked to be allowed to pay their State and county taxes and to register. They were sent to the chairman of the Registration Committee and he also refused to enroll their names. Then they went to the polls September 8 and were told, "No women voting here."
Mrs. McLendon telegraphed to Bainbridge Colby, Secretary of State, who answered: "The matter to which you refer is not within the province of this Department and I am not in a position to give you any advice with regard thereto." She next asked Governor Dorsey to call an extra session of the Legislature to provide some way for the women to vote in the general election, but he said he could not. Then she went to a full meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee, held September 16, but no chance to be heard was given her. The next day she attended a meeting of the Fulton County Commissioners, who declared their willingness but their inability to do anything. She then called on Attorney General R. A. Denny, who advised her to go to the polls and make the effort, saying: "The 19th Amendment is above the laws of any State." Women in Georgia, however, were not permitted to vote at the Presidential election two months after they had been enfranchised by this amendment.
LEGISLATIVE ACTION. The first request for woman suffrage was put before the Legislature in 1895, the last in 1920, and in the interim every session had this subject before it, with pet.i.tions signed by thousands of women, but during the quarter of a century it did not give one sc.r.a.p of suffrage to the women of the State. From 1895 bills for the following measures were kept continuously before it: Age of protection for girls to be raised from 10 years; co-guardianship of children; prevention of employment of children under 10 or 12 years old in factories; women on boards of education; opening of the colleges to women. Year after year these bills were smothered in committees or reported unfavorably or defeated, usually by large majorities. In 1912 a bill was pa.s.sed enabling women to be notaries public; in 1916 one permitting women to practice law, which the suffragists had worked for since 1899; in 1918 one raising the age of consent to 14. The suffrage a.s.sociation had worked for it twenty-three years and always asked that the age be 18.
In 1912 another a.s.sociation to further the movement for woman suffrage was formed in Atlanta, the Woman Suffrage League, and Mrs. Frances Smith Whiteside, who had been from early days a member of the old a.s.sociation, was elected president. Mrs. Whiteside was for thirty years princ.i.p.al of the Ivy Street school and during the first ten years of the existence of the State a.s.sociation she was the only teacher who dared avow herself a member, as the very name of suffrage was so odious to the public. Through her family connections and wide acquaintance she was able to exercise a strong personal influence in bringing well-known men and women to a belief in this cause. The league did active work among teachers and business women and converted some of the leading legislators. It inaugurated an educational campaign in the schools and gave business scholarships for the best essays on woman suffrage. In co-operation with the other a.s.sociations it obtained signatures to pet.i.tions for the Munic.i.p.al franchise. The first street speaking was done under its auspices.
When Leagues of Women Voters were authorized by the National American Suffrage a.s.sociation in 1919, the organization disbanded and the members entered the league formed in Georgia. Mrs. Whiteside had been continually the president and there had been only two changes in the board of the following officers: First vice-president, Mrs. Elizabeth McCarty; second, Miss Laura Barrien; corresponding secretary, Mrs.
Jack Hawkins; recording secretaries, Mrs. William H. Yeandle, Mrs.
Mary Peyton; treasurer, Miss Ethel Merk; auditors, Mrs. A. G. Helmer, Miss Minnie Bellamy. Mrs. Yeandle died in 1915 and Mrs. Mary Peyton was elected in her place. This year Mrs. Helmer became president of a branch league and was succeeded as auditor by Miss Minnie Bellamy.
THE EQUAL SUFFRAGE PARTY OF GEORGIA.[36]
For some time there had seemed a necessity in Georgia for an organization which would undertake more aggressive work in behalf of woman suffrage. Early in 1914 the psychological time for it became apparent and a meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Emily C. McDougald in Atlanta. A group of influential men and women were present, who declared themselves in favor of an active campaign and pledged their support. On motion of Linton C. Hopkins a committee was appointed to nominate temporary officers, and reported for president Mrs.
McDougald; for vice-president, Mrs. Hopkins, and for secretary, Mrs.
Hugh Lokey. A const.i.tution and by-laws were adopted and a pet.i.tion for a State charter was filed under the name of the Equal Suffrage Party of Georgia.
On July 29 a meeting was called for permanent organization and with representatives from different parts of the State present the following were elected: President, Mrs. McDougald; first vice-president, Mrs. John Dozier Pou of Columbia; second, Miss Mildred Cunningham of Savannah; secretary, Mrs. Henry Schlesinger; treasurer, Mrs. Benjamin Elsas; organizer, Mrs. Mary Raoul Millis; auditor, Miss Genevieve Saunders, all of Atlanta. Members of the Executive Board were: Mrs. Mary Meade Owens of Augusta; Mrs. Mayhew Cunningham of Savannah; Miss Anna Griffin of Columbus; Mrs. Charles C. Harrold of Macon. Affiliated branches were organized with presidents as follows: In Savannah, Mrs. F. P. McIntire; in Augusta, Mrs. Owens; in Columbus, Miss Anabel Redd; in Atlanta, Miss Eleanore Raoul; in Macon, Mrs.
Harrold; in Athens, Mrs. W. B. Hill; in Albany, Mrs. D. H. Redfearn.
From these centers a great deal of work was done for suffrage in the adjacent smaller towns. The city organizations opened offices and committees of local women were put in charge of the work of raising money and distributing suffrage propaganda. Tens of thousands of letters, leaflets, books and speeches were distributed throughout the State. All of the women"s clubs were urged to endorse suffrage; schools were asked to debate the subject and prizes offered for the best arguments in debate and in written composition. Suffrage parades on foot and in automobiles were had in all the cities, suffrage plays put into the theaters, suffrage slides into the movies and every means of educating the public was used. The best national speakers were brought into the State and immense audiences worked up for them. The beloved Dr. Anna Howard Shaw spoke in Atlanta to one of 6,000. The National American Woman Suffrage a.s.sociation, of which the Equal Suffrage Party was an affiliated branch, gave hearty co-operation in securing these speakers. The party held annual conventions, where new officers were generally elected as a matter of democratic policy. The second took place in Atlanta Nov. 17, 1915, where Mrs. McDougald was re-elected president and the other officers selected were Mrs. J. D.
Pou of Columbus, first vice-president; Mrs. Cunningham, second; Miss Schlesinger, secretary; Miss Aurelia Roach, treasurer; Mrs. Millis, organizer. The party already had branches in 13 counties, including the largest cities.
The annual convention on Oct. 28, 1916, was held in Atlanta and Mrs.
L. S. Arrington of Augusta was elected president; Mrs. S. B. C. Morgan of Savannah, first vice-president; Mrs. Harrold, second; Miss Julia Flisch, secretary, and Miss Annie G. Wright, treasurer, both of Augusta. The effort in Atlanta to secure a pet.i.tion for Munic.i.p.al suffrage for women had resulted in obtaining the signatures of 6,000 women and 3,000 men. All the delegates to three national Presidential conventions had been circularized in behalf of a plank for Federal woman suffrage, and all the members of the Legislature asking for the submission of a State amendment. The next annual convention was held in Augusta Nov. 24, 1917, and Mrs. Frank P. McIntire of Savannah was selected for president. The convention was omitted in 1918, as the women were occupied with war work.