The State Federation of Women's Clubs was organized in 1897 and has a membership of fifteen societies.
Women have never actively participated in public campaigns except in local politics where the liquor question has been the paramount issue. Miss Belle Kearney is a temperance lecturer of national reputation, and a pronounced advocate of woman suffrage.
FOOTNOTES:
[347] The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt of Clarksdale, president of the State Woman Suffrage Association and editor of the Challenge, a county paper.
[348] Officers elected: President, Mrs. Hala Hammond Butt; vice-president, Mrs. Fannie Clark; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Harriet B. Kells; recording secretary, Mrs. Rebecca Roby; treasurer, Miss Mabel Pugh. Other officers have been Miss Belle Kearney and Mesdames Nellie Nugent, Charlotte L. Pitman and Pauline Alston Clark.
[349] Any municipality of 300 or more inhabitants may be declared a "separate school district" by an ordinance of the mayor or board of aldermen if it maintain a free public school at least seven months in each year. Four months is the ordinary public term, the additional three months' school being supported by special taxation. Thus as soon as a woman has to pay a special tax she is deprived of a vote.