Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/345

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MISSISSIPPI
331

a new recruit. The Purple and White, a Millsaps College paper, was supplied with suffrage material by a bright senior, Janie Linfield.

For the first time suffrage headquarters were maintained at the State Fair by the Equity League of Jackson. Furnishings were loaned by Mr. and Mrs. C. C. Warren from their beautiful home "Fairview." A rest room for mothers and babies was provided, other tired visitors were also welcomed and the suffrage booth was the most popular place on the grounds. For the first time the association was invited to take part on Woman's Day at the State Fair, when representatives from the women's State organizations held a joint meeting, and the president, Mrs. Thompson, spoke for the suffragists.

Letters were sent to the Mississippi members of Congress urging them to vote for the Federal Suffrage Amendment and to President Wilson, pleading for his favorable consideration. Motion pictures were utilized in three ways—suffrage plays were shown, local clubs selling tickets received a part of the proceeds and suffrage slogans were thrown on the slides between pictures.

The State convention was held in the Senate Chamber of the new Capitol at Jackson in April, 1913. At the evening sessions all seats on the floor were taken, the galleries filled and chairs brought from committee rooms to accommodate the audiences. Music was furnished by the Chaminade Club of Jackson. Mayor Swepson I. Taylor gave the address of welcome. Others who spoke were Mrs. Fannie S. Clark, Mrs. E. T. Edmonds, president of the Equity League, and Mrs. Royden-Douglas, president of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. In her president's address Mrs. Thompson recommended that the association ask the next Legislature to submit to the voters a State constitutional amendment giving women the ballot, and this was unanimously adopted. The Rev. E. T. Edmonds of the First Christian Church of Jackson spoke on Woman Suffrage in New Zealand, where he had been a resident.

Letters to the president and secretary from U. S. Senators John Sharp Williams and James K. Vardaman were read in reply to appeals that they vote for the Federal Amendment. Senator Vardaman said that when the amendment came up he