In June the General Federation of Women's Clubs met in San Francisco and many of the prominent women in attendance arranged to return via Oregon, the New York special train stopping over for one day. It was met twelve miles out and escorted to Portland and met at the depot by a brass band.
In the afternoon a meeting was held in the Taylor Street Methodist Church with many unable to obtain admittance. Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New York; Mrs. H. C. Warren of New Jersey; Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Kentucky; Miss Helen Varick Boswell and Miss Mary Wood of New York, and Professor Frances Squire Potter of Minnesota University, were among the speakers. The last four remained for several days and spoke at the great Gladstone Chautauqua. One of the most noteworthy incidents of the campaign was a debate here between Mrs. Breckinridge and the Rev. Clarence True Wilson, secretary of the Committee of Temperance and Morals for the Methodist Church. The reverend gentleman was the white hope of the anti-suffragists. His exalted calling and his official position as a prohibitionist, camouflaged the relation between the two extremes of society that were working against the amendment— the liquor people and a group of society women supplemented by a group of prominent men. He had sent the challenge to the Woman's Club Committee and Mrs. Breckinridge took up the gauntlet. Three thousand people saw him, completely routed, retire from the platform while Mrs. Breckinridge and "the cause" got a tremendous ovation. Mr. Wilson and William D. Wheelwright were the only two men who took the platform against the amendment. The women "antis" were led by Mrs. A. E. Rockey, Mrs. Ralph Wilber, Mrs. Robert Lewis and the Misses Etta and May Failing.
The committee maintained a speakers' bureau and sent out thousands of pieces of literature. Among the first to enter the campaign was a Men's Equal Suffrage Club, organized and promoted by W. M. Davis, a prominent attorney of Portland, which soon became an active state-wide organization. Mr. Davis was the legal adviser of all the women's organizations.
Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, an early worker and one of the most liberal financial supporters of the campaign, went directly into