Volume VI Part 36 (1/2)

Mrs. Hodges continued to pay the rent of headquarters and a substantial bank account was built up by dues, subscriptions and collections at meetings.

Miss Martin attended the national suffrage convention at Philadelphia in November, where she told of the need of funds to further the campaign and secured many pledges and donations. Dr. Shaw, the president, promised $1,000 from the a.s.sociation after the amendment was submitted. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont and Mrs. Joseph Fels had become honorary presidents and the former gave $100; the latter made her contribution of $500 later. The Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sociation, through Mrs. Maud Wood Park, $100; the National a.s.sociation, $100 in cash and $100 in literature; the _Woman's Journal_ $45. California and Arizona gave funds and literature. A pamphlet ent.i.tled Woman Under Nevada Laws, by Miss B. M. Wilson, an attorney, had been published in a special edition of 20,000 and proved effective in rousing the women to a sense of their rights and wrongs.

The rapid organization had its effect on legislators and politicians.

The resolution for submitting an amendment was presented in both Houses in 1913 and reported favorably by the Judiciary Committees. It pa.s.sed in the House on January 24 by 49 ayes, 3 noes, one absent; in the Senate on January 30 by 19 ayes, 3 noes. On March 3 it was signed by the Governor.

The educational work was done through the press, the platform and entertainments. Speakers of national note were secured, among them Dr.

Shaw, Mr. and Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw, and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, of New York; Dr. Charles F. Aked, of San Francisco; Miss Jane Addams of Chicago, and Miss Mabel Vernon of Was.h.i.+ngton. The meetings were attended by about three men to one woman. Mr. Laidlaw a.s.sisted in organizing a Men's Suffrage League, among whose members were Supreme Court Justice Frank Norcross, Dr. Stubbs, Superintendent of Public Instruction John Edwards Bray, S. W. Belford, Charles Gulling, A. A.

Hibbard, Professor J. E. Church, Captain Applewhite, the Rev. Mr.

Adams, the Rev. Mr. Sheldon, George Taylor and John Wright.

At the annual meeting Feb. 25, 1913, it was announced that there were nearly 1,000 paid up members, with most of the counties organized and many town societies. ”Nevada, the black spot on the map! To make it white, give women the suffrage,” was the constant slogan. Miss Martin, Mrs. Church, Mrs. Bray, Miss Wilson and Mrs. Bridges were re-elected.

Other members chosen were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Hugh Brown, Mrs.

Alexander Orr, Mrs. George West, Mrs. Lyman D. Clark, Jr., Mrs. E. E.

Caine, Mrs. Harry Warren; recording secretary, Mrs. J. B. Menardi; treasurer, Mrs. Mabel Redman; auditors, Mrs. P. B. Kennedy, Mrs. W. T.

Jenkins.

In the little span of days that lay between the election of the State Executive Committee in 1912 and the legislative session of 1913 the sixteen counties were organized, each under a chairman. Mrs. M. S.

Bonnifield as chairman of Humboldt county, with her helpers, Mrs. A.

W. Card, Mrs. Mark Walser of Lovelock and Dr. Nellie Hascall of Fallon, led their branches into the mining fields. It is not easy to realize the difficulties under which these women labored. Mrs. H. C.

Taylor, chairman of Churchill county, had to drive many miles from her ranch to attend every meeting. Some of the chairmen were Mrs. A. J.

McCarty, Mineral county; Mrs. Rudolph Zadow, Eureka; Mrs. Sadie D.

Hurst, Washoe; Mrs. Bray, Ormsby; Mrs. F. P. Langdon, Storey; Mrs.

Caine, Elko; Mrs. Minnie Comins MacDonald, White Pine.

Mrs. Church, Miss Mary Henry, Mrs. Hurst, Mrs. Belford, and Mrs. Maud Ga.s.soway were an active force in organizing societies at Sparks, Verdi and Wadsworth in Washoe county, the largest in the State. Mrs. W. H.

Bray organized study cla.s.ses in Sparks and gave prizes for the best suffrage essays. Mrs. Hurst addressed large street crowds in Reno every Sat.u.r.day night. An important feature of the campaign was the complete circularization of the voters with suffrage literature by the county organizations and from State headquarters by Mrs. Bessie Eichelberger, State treasurer for two years, a.s.sisted by Miss Alexandrine La Tourette of the State University; Mrs. Belford, Mrs. P.

L. Flannigan, Mrs. Alf. Doten, Miss Minnie Flannigan, Mrs. Charles E.

Bosnell and Mrs. John Franzman. Mrs. Hood, the second vice-president, and chairman of civics in the State Federation of Women's Clubs, was the leading factor in getting its endors.e.m.e.nt at its meeting in Reno, Oct. 30, 1913.

Nevada's population of only 80,000 is scattered over an area of 110,000 square miles, a territory larger than the whole of New England. Of these, 40,000 are men over twenty-one years of age, of whom only 20,000 remained in the State long enough to vote at the last general election--an average of one voter to every five square miles.

Nevada has the smallest urban and the most scattered rural population in the United States. Reaching and winning this vote was done mostly by press work and literature. The new voters on the registration lists were circularized. The personal contact with the voter was accomplished by street meetings in the cities and towns; in the rural communities by train, automobile, stage and even on horseback.

All the political parties but the Republican endorsed the amendment in their platforms and it was supported by labor unions representing 6,000 members. Prestige and a.s.sistance were given by an Advisory Board consisting of U. S. Senators Francis G. Newlands and Key Pittman, Congressman E. E. Roberts, Governor Tasker H. Oddie, Lieutenant Governor Gilbert C. Ross, President Stubbs, Bishop Robinson and many professional and business men. There was fierce opposition from some newspapers, including the Reno _Evening Gazette_, the leading Republican paper of the State, but active support from the _State Journal_, owned and edited by George Darius Kilborn, formerly of New York, who was always in favor of woman suffrage. The _Western Nevada Miner_, owned and edited by J. Holman Buck, gave much a.s.sistance in that part of the State.

In canva.s.sing and speaking tours over the State Miss Martin travelled over 3,000 miles and talked personally to nearly every one of the 20,000 voters. There are 240 election precincts and over 180 were organized with a woman leader. On Nov. 3, 1914, every county was carried for the amendment but four, each of these a county with one of the largest and oldest towns in the State. The vote in Washoe county was 1,449 for, 2,047 against; in Reno, the county seat, 938 for, 1,587 against. Ormsby county with Carson City gave an adverse majority of only 141; Storey county with Virginia City of only 31. The total vote was 10,936 ayes, 7,257 noes--the amendment carried by 3,679. The cost of the whole three years' campaign was only a little more than $7,000.

At the annual meeting of the Washoe county Equal Franchise Society after the election it was evident that, having won suffrage, women recognized their new and enlarged responsibilities and were anxious to do something for the public welfare and their own development. A ma.s.s meeting was held in the Y. W. C. A. building and the Woman Citizens'

Club was organized with a charter members.h.i.+p of 80. Mrs. Hurst was elected president. Other officers were: Vice-presidents, Mrs. Belford, Mrs. C. H. Burke, Mrs. Hood; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Mack; recording secretary, Mrs. Bessie Mouffe; financial secretary, Mrs.

Harold Duncan; treasurer, Mrs. Eichelberger; auditor, Mrs. Katherine Flett; librarian, Mrs. F. C. MacDiarmid. This club succeeded in getting a year as a required residence for those from other States seeking divorce and later another Legislature proposed to repeal it and restore the six months. Mrs. George F. Nixon, wife of the former U. S. Senator, was made legislative chairman and headed the women of Reno who went almost _en ma.s.se_ to Carson City to protest but the pressure on the other side was too strong and the old law was restored.

In August, 1918, The Woman Citizens' Club endorsed Mrs. Sadie D. Hurst of Reno for the a.s.sembly, in recognition of what she had done for suffrage and for the club. She won at the primaries and also at the polls in November and was the first woman member. The submission of the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment to the Legislatures by Congress seemed near and at the request of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, a Ratification Committee was formed in December.

Helen T. (Mrs. S. W.) Belford was acting chairman with Mesdames Walser, Hood, McKenzie, Mack, Church, Boyd, Bray, Franzman, Fannie B.

Patrick and Emma Vanderlith members. At the request of this committee a resolution was presented to the Legislature by Mrs. Hurst on Jan.

22, 1919, asking this body to memorialize Congress in favor of the amendment. It pa.s.sed the a.s.sembly January 23 with but one dissenting vote; the Senate January 29 unanimously and the Nevada U. S. Senators were requested to present and actively support it.

In March the committee elected Mrs. Patrick delegate to the national suffrage convention in St. Louis and in April it met to hear her report and details of the proposed League of Women Voters. The following July a meeting was held to listen to Mrs. Minnie S.