roposing a constitutional amendment for woman suffrage. In
fact the women were following closely the advice of the National
Association and were ardently hoping to avoid a State campaign. They
were reckoning from past experiences but times had changed.
Twenty-five men came ready to propose a full suffrage amendment;
Representative Riggs, the father of the Primary bill, was the first
man on the floor after the House was organized and his bill got first
place on the calendar. It passed the Senate January 30 by 27 to one,
and the House February 3 by 73 to three. In November it went to the
voters and was defeated. It received the largest favorable vote of any
of the amendments submitted but not a majority of the largest number
cast at the election, as required by the constitution. The women had
felt certain that this would be impossible. In August, 1920, full
suffrage was conferred by the Federal Amendment.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. O. F. Ellington,
president of the State Woman Suffrage Association, 1914-1917, and Mrs.
T. T. Cotnam, State treasurer during these years and chairman of the
State Suffrage Central Committee from 1917.

[7] The following officers were elected: Chairman, Mrs. Ellington;
secretary, Mrs. Gibb, Little Rock. Finance Committee: Chairman, Mrs.
Cotnam; Mrs. C. C. Cate, Jonesboro; Mrs. Land, Mrs. William Ells,
Texarkana; Mrs. W. H. Connell, Hot Springs. Committee that framed
constitution: Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; Mrs. Head, Mrs. Blaisdell, Hot
Springs; Congressional chairman, Mrs. Ada Roussans, Jonesboro; Mrs.
Fitzhugh, Mrs. H. E. Morrow, Mrs. Head, Mrs. W. L. Moose, Mrs.
Drennan, Mrs. Garland Street, district chairmen.

[8] In June, 1912, Miss Kate Gordon offered a Primary bill as a
substitute for the constitutional amendment in the Louisiana
Legislature, but it never came out of committee. Miss Gordon said:
"The idea came to me as a solution of the woman suffrage question in a
flash and it struck me as a good one. The Primary idea was mine as
early as 1912."

[9] Most of the women whose names are mentioned in this chapter, with
the addition of Mrs. John P. Ahmand, Mrs. De Mott Henderson and Miss
Jennie De Neler, did valuable legislative work during this and other
sessions.

CHAPTER IV.

CALIFORNIA.[10]

The first ten years of the new century--Woman's Century--were years of
laborious effort in California to educate the public mind and
familiariz