western States. This was felt
more especially by the women of the Middle West, as many of the States
in the far West had given the vote to their women.

Finally in 1912 the initiative was taken by a group of women in
Chicago, headed by Mrs. Ella S. Stewart, six years president of the
Illinois Suffrage Association; Miss Jane Addams, national vice
president, and Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, a former State and
national officer, to form an organization in the central part of the
country that could hold occasional conferences. They asked the
presidents of the State associations in that section if they would
join in a call for a meeting in Chicago for this purpose and sixteen
responded in the affirmative. Mrs. Stewart, as chairman of the
committee, took charge of the arrangements, assisted by Mrs. Mary R.
Plummer, and prepared the program. The meeting took place in La Salle
Hotel, May 21-23, with the following States represented by women
prominent in the movement for woman suffrage: Illinois, Wisconsin,
Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska,
South Dakota, Mrs. Elvira Downey, president of the Illinois Suffrage
Association, presiding. There were three sessions daily with large
audiences and the _Woman's Journal_ said: "Every session was like a
great study class with teachers and students, questions, answers and
discussion. It was not an occasion for a display of oratory but a
practical and business-like conference." All phases of the work for
suffrage were considered and especially the management of campaigns,
which were now frequent. The third day a meeting was held in
Milwaukee, arranged by Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis. The great need and
value of such an organization was clearly apparent and the Mississippi
Valley Conference was organized with Mrs. Stewart president. There was
no constitution or fixed rules, it was simply decided to hold a
meeting the next year and a committee to arrange for it appointed:
Mrs. Stewart, chairman; Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana and Mrs. Maud C.
Stockwell of Minnesota.

The second conference met in St. Louis April 2-4, 1913, in the
Buckingham Hotel, at the Call of nineteen State presidents. Mrs.
George Gellhorn, president of the Missouri association, had charge of
the arrangements, with a corps of committee chairmen. Mrs. Stewart
presided and the conference was welcomed by Mrs. David M. O'Neil. Th