onding secretary; Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi
treasurer. The plan of campaign consisted of the establishment of
headquarters in New Orleans; the creating of an active press bureau
and the holding of conferences in the southern States, particularly
those where no suffrage organization existed. It was originally hoped
that the National Association would encourage with active support the
development of this specialized suffrage work but it refused any
financial assistance.

The founders undaunted pursued their own plan of financing, when
suddenly through the generosity of Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont of New
York the wheels were set in motion. Under caution that secrecy be
maintained, Mrs. Belmont, a southern born woman, attracted by the
practicability of the plan, endorsed it by sending a check for
$10,000. Later at a meeting of the conference in Chattanooga, Tenn.,
she said: "I plead guilty to so strong a desire for the political
emancipation of women that I am not at all particular as to how it
shall be granted. I have sworn allegiance to the National Amendment
for woman suffrage, while the Southern States Conference, of which I
am proud to be a member, holds rigidly to the principle of State's
rights. As a southerner I thoroughly understand the problems which
create this attitude and if that method proves effective I shall
gratefully accept the results."

In May, 1914, the headquarters were opened in New Orleans with Mrs.
Ida Porter Boyer of Pennsylvania as their secretary. Within three
months 1,000 southern newspapers were using the specially prepared
weekly editorials and fillers sent out. In October was launched the
_New Southern Citizen_, a monthly suffrage magazine, which made its
initial trip with a distinctively southern suffrage appeal. This
little arsenal of facts reached every legislator in the South prior to
the sessions of the Legislatures. Special bills endorsed by
suffragists or women were made the theme of weekly news articles,
which called out editorials by wholesale. To illustrate: When
Mississippi women were making an effort to secure an amendment to
enable women to serve on public boards, an enthusiastic Mississippian
wrote to the conference of the support given by local papers in their
editorials and general comments. Every word printed had been furnished
by the news bulletins from the conference headquarters.

The work of the Southern Conference would be incomplete without
special