n before county and State conventions of the different
political parties, asking for a recognition in their platforms of the
right of women to the suffrage. Although these efforts have met with
no response from the Democratic party, and none from the Republican in
State meetings, a few county conventions have adopted planks to this
effect. In 1889 the Greenback and the United Labor State Conventions
unequivocally indorsed the franchise for women. In 1892 the Populist
and the Prohibition State platforms contained declarations for woman
suffrage. In 1894 the Populists again adopted the plank. Similar
action was taken by the Social Democratic Party in 1900. Among those
appearing before these bodies are found the names of Mrs. Sewall, Mrs.
Gougar, Mrs. Haggart, Mrs. Pauline T. Merritt, Miss Flora Hardin, Mrs.
Florence M. Adkinson, Mrs. Augusta Cooper Bristol and Mrs. Harper.

During the past sixteen years a number of women have sat as delegates
in the State conventions of the Greenback, Prohibition, Populist,
Socialist and Labor parties. Women have shown great interest in
politics for many years, crowding the galleries at the State
conventions and forming at least one-half of the audiences at the
campaign rallies. Among those who have canvassed the State in national
campaigns are the noted orators, Miss Anna E. Dickinson, and Mrs.
Nellie Holbrook Blinn of California, for the Republican party; Mrs.
Mary E. Lease and Mrs. Annie L. Diggs, both of Kansas, for the
Populist; Miss Cynthia Cleveland for the Democratic, and Mrs. Helen M.
Gougar for the Republican, Prohibition and Populist.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND LAWS: It is most difficult to look up the
history of legislation on any subject in Indiana. The original bills
are not printed but are presented in writing, stowed away in
pigeon-holes and thenceforth referred to only by number, with perhaps
a fragment of their titles. After several women, deeply interested in
the question, had attempted to make a list of the suffrage bills
during the last sixteen years and had given up in despair, they
appealed to one of the best lawyers in the State, who is a firm
believer in the enfranchisement of women. He responded that no
accurate report could be made without first going through all the
pigeon-holes and over all the journals of the two Houses during that
period, which would require weeks of time and great expense. As very
few of these bills ever were reported from the committees, it