Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/375

The State convention was held in Butte in September in preparation for work in the Legislature during January and February, 1903, for submission to the voters of a woman suffrage amendment to the State constitution, which had been strongly recommended by Governor Toole in his Message. A considerable sum was raised for press work and Miss Mary E. O'Neill was appointed superintendent. A resolution asking the National Association for the services of Miss Laughlin for legislative work was adopted and she remained.^[1]

The bill for full suffrage was introduced in both Houses; public hearings were granted by the Judiciary Committee of each and the House took a recess that its members might attend in a body. Miss Laughlin and others spoke and the measure had strong advocates in Dr. O. M. Lanstrum, J. M. Kennedy, John Maginness, Colonel James U. Sanders, F. Augustus Heinze (the copper magnate), Colonel C. B. Nolan, State Senators Whipple, Myers and Johnson. State officers and members of the Helena Club assisted in the legislative work, which continued two months. The vote in the House was 41 ayes, 23 noes, but two-thirds were necessary. The resolution introduced in the Senate by H. L. Sherlock was also defeated.

At the session of 1905 the amendment resolution was again introduced and Mrs. Tower travelled from Boston to be present at the hearing. Mrs. J. M. Lewis, Mrs. Walter Matheson and Miss O'Neill addressed the committees but the vote was adverse.

For a number of years little was done except in a desultory way. The suffrage resolution was presented at almost every session of the Legislature but there was no intensive work for it. Some of the political equality clubs lived on, the strongest one in Missoula with J. Washington McCormick president and Miss Jeannette Rankin vice-president. In 1911 Dr. J. M. Donahue had introduced the suffrage resolution in the Legislature but no work had been done for it and this club sent Miss Rankin to Helena to press for its passage. It found champions in Colonel J. B. Nolan, W. W. Berry and D. G. O'Shea and opponents in James E. McNally and Joseph Binnard. Miss Rankin obtained permission to address the House. The Senate refused to attend

1. In the intensive work that followed, Mrs. Tower was assisted by Dr. Dean, Mrs, Ellen Maria Dean, Mrs. James U. Sanders, Mrs. T. J. Walsh, Mrs, Bessie Hughes Smith, Mrs. Martha Dunkel, Mrs. Ella Knowles Haskell, Mrs. Adelaide Staves Reeder, Dr. Bertha Mackal McCleman, Mrs. C. B. Nolan, Mrs. Donald Bradford, Madame F. Rowena Medini, Miss Sarepta Sanders, Dr. Mary B. Atwater, Mrs. H. L. Sherlock, Mrs. Hughes and Miss Mary C. Wheeler.