or Hugh M. Dorsey said: "I hope that as
Governor of Georgia I may be given the privilege of signing a bill
giving women equal rights in this great commonwealth."

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. In June, 1915, the Equal Suffrage Party made its
first effort to sponsor a suffrage bill in the Legislature. It opened
a booth in one of the corridors between the House and Senate chambers,
supplied it with the best suffrage literature and put it in charge of
a committee of women who worked faithfully to convert some of that
wilful and reactionary group of politicians. It was a hopeless task.
The first bill was introduced in the House by Mr. Wohlwender of
Muscogee county and in the Senate by Senators Dobbs and Buchanan and
referred to the Judiciary Committee, which granted a hearing.
Representatives from all the suffrage associations were present and
made speeches. Mrs. Walter D. Lamar and Miss Mildred Rutherford, head
of the Lucy Cobb Institute of Athens, represented the Anti-Suffrage
Association. Mrs. Lamar's arguments were based upon the theory that
women did not have sufficient integrity to be trusted with the ballot;
that long years ago when those of New Jersey had it it had to be taken
from them because they were so dishonest in their use of it. She also
said that women were universally the hardest taskmasters, requiring
more work and paying less for it than men. Miss Rutherford begged the
legislators to disregard the request of the few women desiring the
ballot, as they did not represent the true type of the southern woman,
who had always rejoiced in being upon a high pedestal where men had
placed her and worshipped her and that women were more than satisfied
with that which men had so lavishly and chivalrously given--their love
and their money. These speeches were received with howls of
appreciation from the legislators, who dwelt upon the type that
appealed to them, "the woman who was the mother of children and
realized that her place was at home with her hand on the cradle." The
committee made an unfavorable report.

In 1916 this experience was repeated. In 1917 and 1918 the leaders of
the Equal Suffrage Party were absorbed in war work and had no time to
waste in so helpless and disagreeable a task. They realized that they
would soon be enfranchised by a Federal Amendment, the only hope of
the women of Georgia.

RATIFICATION. In 1919 came the great struggle over ratification. The
best the suffragists hoped for was that no actio