Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/403

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NEVADA
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the most scattered rural population in the United States. Reaching and winning this vote was done mostly by press work and literature. The new voters on the registration lists were circularized. The personal contact with the voter was accomplished by street meetings in the cities and towns; in the rural communities by train, automobile, stage and even on horseback.

All the political parties but the Republican endorsed the amendment in their platforms and it was supported by labor unions representing 6,000 members. Prestige and assistance were given by an Advisory Board consisting of U. S. Senators Francis G. Newlands and Key Pittman, Congressman E. E. Roberts, Governor Tasker H. Oddie, Lieutenant Governor Gilbert C. Ross, President Stubbs, Bishop Robinson and many professional and business men. There was fierce opposition from some newspapers, including the Reno Evening Gazette, the leading Republican paper of the State, but active support from the State Journal, owned and edited by George Darius Kilborn, formerly of New York, who was always in favor of woman suffrage. The Western Nevada Miner, owned and edited by J. Holman Buck, gave much assistance in that part of the State.

In canvassing and speaking tours over the State Miss Martin travelled over 3,000 miles and talked personally to nearly every one of the 20,000 voters. There are 240 election precincts and over 180 were organized with a woman leader. On Nov. 3, 1914, every county was carried for the amendment but four, each of these a county with one of the largest and oldest towns in the State. The vote in Washoe county was 1,449 for, 2,047 against; in Reno, the county seat, 938 for, 1,587 against. Ormsby county with Carson City gave an adverse majority of only 141; Storey county with Virginia City of only 31. The total vote was 10,936 ayes, 7,257 noes—the amendment carried by 3,679. The cost of the whole three years' campaign was only a little more than $7,000.

At the annual meeting of the Washoe county Equal Franchise Society after the election it was evident that, having won suffrage, women recognized their new and enlarged responsibilities and were anxious to do something for the public welfare and their own development. A mass meeting was held in the