In October, 1897, the acting president, Mrs. Concheta Ferris Lutz, made an extended lecture tour. The annual meeting convened at Minneapolis in November, at the same time as a conference of the officers of the National Association. All arrangements were made by Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, Dr. Ripley and Mrs. Niles. The meetings in the First Baptist Church, one of the largest in the city, were very successful. On Sunday evening the Rev. Anna Howard Shaw, vice-president-at-large of the National Association, preached in the Universalist Church, and Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chairman of the national organization committee, lectured in the Wesley M. E. Church, both to crowded houses. The next evening, when Miss Anthony, national president, and the latter spoke, every foot of standing ground was occupied, and on Tuesday, when Miss Shaw gave her lecture on The Fate of Republics, the church was equally well-filled.
Mrs. Nelson, after seven years' service, relinquished the office of president and Dr. Eaton was elected. Professional duties soon made it necessary for her to resign and her place was filled by Mrs. Lutz. Political equality clubs were formed in six different wards of Minneapolis by Dr. Eaton.
The convention of 1898 was called October 4, 5, at Minneapolis, with Mrs. Chapman Catt in attendance. The meetings were held in the G. A. R. Hall, the Masonic Temple and the Lyceum Theater. Mrs. Martha J. Thompson was elected president and Dr. Ethel E. Hurd corresponding secretary.
In 1899 the convention met in the court-house of Albert Lea, October 9, 10. On the first evening Mrs. Chapman Catt was the speaker, her theme being A True Democracy. The Rev. Ida C. Hultin of Illinois lectured on The Crowning Race. Miss Laura A. Gregg and Miss Helen L. Kimber, both of Kansas, national organizers, gave reports of county conventions conducted by them throughout Minnesota, with the assistance of Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden, president of the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association. The records showed ninety-eight suffrage meetings altogether to have been held during the year.
In 1900 the convention took place at Stillwater, October 11, 12. The officers elected were: President, Mrs. Maude C. Stockwell; vice-president, Mrs. Jennie E. Brown; corresponding secretary, Miss Delia O'Malley; recording secretary, Mrs. Maria B. Bryant; treasurer, Dr. Margaret Koch; auditors, Sanford Niles and Mrs. Estelle Way; chairman executive committee, Mrs. Martha J. Thompson.[341]
Judge J. B. and Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, C. W. and Mrs. Martha A. Dorsett have been among the oldest and most valued suffrage workers in the State. Miss Martha Scott Anderson, on the staff of the Minneapolis Journal, gives efficient help to the cause. Three presidents of the State W. C. T. U., Mesdames Harriet A. Hobart, Susanna M. D. Fry and Bessie Laythe Scoville have been noted as advocates of equal rights.[342]
Legislative Action and Laws: In February, 1891, at the request of Mrs. Julia B. Nelson, president, and Mrs. A. T. Anderson, chairman of the executive committee of the State association, S. A. Stockwell introduced in the House a bill conferring Municipal Suffrage upon women. Mrs. Nelson spent several weeks at the capital looking after the petitions which came from all parts of the State, interviewing members of the Legislature, distributing literature and trying to get the bill out of the hands of the Committee on Elections, to which it had been referred. After repeated postponements a hearing finally was granted, at which she made a strong plea and showed the good results of woman suffrage in Kansas and Wyoming. The bill was indefinitely postponed in Committee of the Whole, by a vote of 52 yeas, 40 nays.
Among the leaflets placed on the desk of each member was one especially prepared by Mrs. Nelson, entitled Points on Municipal Suffrage. One of its twelve points was this: "If the Legislature has the power to restrict suffrage it certainly has the right to extend it. The Legislature of Minnesota restricted the suffrage which had been given to women by a constitutional amendment, when it granted to the city of St. Paul a charter taking the election of members of the school board entirely out of the hands of women by giving their appointment to the mayor, an officer elected by the votes of men only."[343]
Early in the session of 1893 Mrs. Nelson had a conference with Ignatius Donnelly, leader of the Populists, who was then in the Senate. He was willing to introduce a suffrage bill, but as the Republicans were in the majority it was thought best to have this done by John Day Smith, the leader of that party in the Senate. Mr. Smith consented, with the understanding that Mr. Donnelly should help by championing the bill. "Municipal Suffrage for women with educational qualifications," was all this bill asked for. Mrs. Nelson, Mrs. Anna B. Turley and Senator Donnelly made addresses before the Judiciary Committee at a hearing in the Senate Chamber, with an interested audience present. Mrs. Nelson also gave an evening lecture here on The Road to Freedom.
In place of this bill one to submit an amendment to the voters was substituted. The suffragists were averse to this, but accepted it with the best grace possible, and enthusiastically worked for the new bill to amend the State constitution by striking the word "male" from the article restricting the suffrage. Senators Smith, Donnelly and Edwin E. Lommen spoke for the bill, and it passed the Senate by 31 yeas, 19 nays.