New Orleans, was crowded with
men and women from all classes of society anxious to hear more on this
daily topic of discussion, as presented by Mrs. Chapman Catt, Miss
Clay and Miss Frances A. Griffin of Alabama. Seats were reserved for
the members of the Constitutional Convention, who responded almost
unanimously to the invitation to be present.

Dr. Henry Dickson Bruns, a member of the Suffrage Committee, bent
every effort to secure Full Suffrage for women as the only means to
effect the reform in political conditions so much desired. The
majority report of the committee, however, contained only this clause:
"All taxpaying women shall have the right to vote in person or by
proxy on all questions of taxation."

While the women were greatly disappointed, this was really a signal
victory in so conservative a State.

Those who supposed that women would make practically no use of this
scrap of suffrage were soon to be undeceived. New Orleans was at this
time a city of 300,000 with absolutely no sewerage system; an
inadequate water supply, and what there was of this in the hands of a
monopoly; an excellent drainage system plodding along for the want of
means at a rate which would have required twenty years to complete it.
The return of yellow fever, the city's arch-enemy, after a lapse of
eighteen years, created consternation. Senseless quarantines prevailed
on all sides; business was paralyzed; property values had fallen;
commercial rivals to the right and left were pressing. A crisis was at
hand, and all depended on the hygienic regeneration of the city.

The lawful limit of taxation had been reached. One of two ways alone
remained--either to grant franchises to private corporations, or for
the taxpayers to vote to tax themselves for the necessary
improvements. Finally a plan was evolved, where, by a combination with
the drainage funds, the great public necessities--water, sewerage and
drainage--could be secured to the city by a tax of two mills on the
dollar, covering a period of forty-two years. A similar proposition
had been voted down two years before, and little hope was entertained
that it would carry this time. Here was the women's opportunity. They
found that one-third of the taxpayers must sign a petition calling the
election to establish its legality. This meant that from 9,000 to
10,000 signatures must be secured. They learned also that to carry the
measure there must be a majority of numbers as well as of