ittee of
women headed by Mrs. Robinson but it received little support and after
creating the usual amount of excitement failed to pass either House.
During the following year suffrage work seemed to lapse and the
organization would have died a natural death but for the will of Mrs.
Robinson, who called a convention to meet in Phoenix in the spring of
1902, where she was elected president with Mrs. Munds corresponding
and recording secretary and Mrs. Ada Irving treasurer. Under Mrs.
Robinson's guidance a list was made of all who had previously
expressed an interest and they were notified that something was doing
in the suffrage line. Dr. Frances Woods of Kansas was sent by the
National Association and made a tour of the Territory which was
remarkable for the haste in which it was made and the results
obtained. She organized clubs in every county and set the women to
work obtaining pre-election pledges, with the result that when the
Legislature convened in the spring of 1903 it lacked only a few votes
of having a majority in both Houses pledged to suffrage. Mrs.
Robinson, Dr. Woods and Mrs. Munds constituted themselves a committee
to work with the members and succeeded in getting a woman suffrage
bill through the Legislature by a two-thirds vote. The rejoicing was
short, for the Governor, Alexander O. Brodie, an appointee of
President Roosevelt, vetoed the bill. Representatives Kean St.
Charles, a newspaper man, and Morrison, a labor leader, were most
active in its behalf, while the scheme that finally sent it down to
defeat was concocted, it was said, by Joseph H. Kibbey, a lawyer of
Phoenix. He was the leader of the Republican minority in the Council
and traded its solid Republican vote for one needed vote on another
bill, with the understanding that the Governor would veto the suffrage
bill.
Governor Brodie afterwards resigned and Mr. Kibbey, the arch-enemy of
woman suffrage, was appointed in his place. Mrs. Robinson continued
propaganda through a little paper which she published and distributed
herself throughout the Territory. This well-edited paper kept alive
the favorable sentiment and through it the leading men and women
suffragists in Arizona were in touch with each other. In the spring of
1905 Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford of Denver was sent by the National
Association and spent several weeks working with the Legislature but
received practically no cooperation from the local women, as it was
conceded that the si
|