In February, 1908, Mrs. Maud Wood Park of Boston made a visit to the State and formed College Woman Suffrage Leagues in the State and Wesleyan Universities and among graduates in Lincoln. Miss Williams was made chairman of a committee to raise Nebraska's pledge of $300 to the Anthony Memorial Fund. At the State convention in Lincoln Nov. 5, 6, Mrs. Marble was obliged to decline the presidency and was made vice-president. The Rev. Mary G. Andrews of Omaha was elected in her place; but from this time until her death, April 6, 1910, Mrs. Marble never ceased to do everything in her power to forward the success of the suffrage movement.
Early in 1909 the petition of the National Association to Congress for an amendment of the Federal Constitution was begun with Miss Williams chairman of the committee and 10,386 signatures were secured. Mrs. Philip Snowden of England lectured in Lincoln during the session of the Legislature and many of the members heard her. The annual convention was held in Lincoln November 18, 19. Mrs. Andrews had gone to Minneapolis and Dr. Inez Philbrick of Lincoln was elected president. A lecture tour was arranged for Dr. B. O. Aylesworth of Denver for the autumn of 1909 and again in 1910; Men's Suffrage Leagues were organized in Omaha and Lincoln and many new clubs formed of people of influence. The convention was postponed to March, 1911. The regular convention of 1911 was held in Lincoln November 20-22. Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst was the speaker and the audience filled the largest assembly room.
The convention of 1912 met in Omaha December 4-6, and it was decided to go into an active campaign to secure the submission of a constitutional amendment by petition in 1914. The Initiative and Referendum Law had been adopted the preceding month, which required the signature of 15 per cent. of the total vote cast at the last election, the signers coming from two-fifths of the counties. This meant 37,752 names from thirty-eight counties. Nebraska has ninety-three counties and an area of 77,520 square miles. Officers elected to serve throughout the campaign were: Henrietta I. (Mrs. Draper) Smith, president; Mrs. Kovanda, vice-president; Miss Williams, corresponding secretary; Miss Daisy Doane, recording secretary; Gertrude Law (Mrs. W. E.) Hardy, treasurer; Mrs. Grace M. Wheeler, first and Elizabeth J. (Mrs. Z. T.) Lindsey, second auditor; committee chairmen; Mrs. Wheeler, Education; Mrs. A. E. Sheldon, Finance; Mrs. Hardy, Publicity; Mrs. Edna M. Barkley, Speakers; Mrs. A. H. Dorris, Press.
Headquarters were opened Jan. 3, 1913, in the Brandeis Theater Building, Omaha, and maintained through the winter of 1912-13. Mrs. Draper Smith had at once assumed her duties as president and appointed Mrs. W. C. Sunderland chairman for the second congressional district, including Douglas, Sarpy and Washington counties. She had asked Mrs. Lindsey to be chairman of Douglas county in which Omaha is situated, who soon had ten precincts organized under capable chairmen, and a little later every ward in Omaha and South Omaha. On February 8 Dr. Shaw, the national president, arrived in Omaha for a conference with the workers. On Sunday afternoon she addressed a mass meeting in the Brandeis Theater at which there was not even standing room. John L. Kennedy presided. The committee of arrangements included the Rev. Frederick T. Rouse of the First Congregational Church; Judge Howard Kennedy, Superintendent of City Schools; E. U. Graff, City Attorney; John E. Rine, C. C. Belden and the officers of the suffrage association. A resolution was before the Legislature to submit an amendment to the voters but it was so evident that it would not be passed that the work for the initiative petition went on rapidly. The last of February thirty-six Omaha women and others from over the State went to Lincoln to see the vote taken in the House. The proposal was defeated, only one man from Douglas county voting for it.
In the early spring the headquarters were moved to Lincoln and the petition work for the State was managed from there, with the exception of that of Omaha. Throughout the year the task was continued of obtaining the signatures in the various counties, all done by volunteers. It was necessary at the same time to create public sentiment and organize clubs in preparation for the campaign for the submission of the amendment which would follow. In Omaha Mrs. Sunderland soon turned the district organization over to Mrs. James Richardson and took the position of city chairman. Meetings were held with prominent local speakers. On November 5 Chancellor Avery of the State University spoke for woman suffrage before the State Teachers' Association in the First Methodist Church. Two days later Dr. Shaw addressed it in the auditorium. She spoke at noon before the Commercial Club, a distinction given by it to a woman for the first time. On Nov. 6, 7, the State convention was held in Lincoln and Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, formerly of Beatrice, was made honorary president.
In January, 1914, a Men's Suffrage League was formed in Omaha with E. H. Geneau, T. E. Brady, Henry Olerichs and James Richardson promoting it. On February 2 a thorough canvass of the business part of the city was begun by the women. Mrs. Lindsey thus described it:
With a blizzard raging and the thermometer at 5 degrees below zero women stood in drug stores and groceries, and visited office buildings, factories and shops, wherever permission could be obtained, soliciting signatures for six consecutive days. Mrs. C. S. Stebbins, nearly seventy years of age, stood at the street car barns and filled several petitions and Mrs. Isaac Conner, a suffrage worker since 1868, made a similar record. Mrs. W. P. Harford and Mrs. George Tilden arranged to have people standing at the church doors for names at the close of service on Sunday. Many ministers offered their churches to the committee and spoke of the matter from their pulpits. Of all the Protestant churches, only the Episcopal refused the committee's request, Dean James A. Tancock of Trinity Cathedral and the Rev. T. J. Mackay of All Saints declining. Petitions were kept open at the Daily News office and other offices and places of business. Fifteen of the leading drug stores offered space to the women under the direction of Mrs. E. S. Rood, and it was decided to continue the intensive campaign until the 12th, when the county chairman had called a meeting at the city hall to celebrate Lincoln's birthday, to hear Medill McCormick of Chicago and to announce results. A large crowd of petition workers, sympathizers and members of the Men's League was present. While the goal for Douglas county was 5,000 signatures over 9,000 had passed through the hands of the county chairmen on their way to the Secretary of State.
Three days later Mrs. J. W. Crumpacker of Kansas appeared in Omaha to organize the opposition forces. The anti-suffragists, led by Mrs. Arthur Crittenden Smith, announced a meeting at Turpin's Hall on the afternoon of February 23. Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge, president of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, and Miss Minnie Bronson, secretary, both of New York, addressed the meeting. Forty people were present, including five reporters and a number of suffragists. Those who joined at that meeting were Mesdames Edward P. Peck, William Archibald Smith, T. J. Mackay, E. A. Benson and Misses Ada Alexander, Genevra March and Minnie Martison. A temporary committee on organization was appointed consisting of Mesdames Arthur C. Smith, J. C. Cowin, Herman Kountze, J. W. Crumpacker, E. A. Benson; Misses Wallace, Riley, Alexander and McGaffney.... The next evening a public meeting was held at the American Theater, addressed by Mrs. Dodge and Miss Bronson, who were introduced by John L. Webster.[108]
On March 11 the district chairman, Mrs. Richardson, and county chairman, Mrs. Lindsey, with a group of workers, sorted, checked and made into neat parcels the precious sheets of paper, which Mrs. Draper Smith carried to Lincoln that afternoon. Possibly half a dozen men had circulated petitions but the bulk of the 11,507 names were obtained in Omaha by women. On March 14 the completed petition for submitting the amendment was filed with the Secretary of State in the presence of the Governor. Although only 37,752 signatures were required it had 50,705 and these represented sixty-three counties instead of the required thirty-eight. They were accepted without question and the amendment was submitted to the voters at the general election, Nov. 4, 1914.
From that time until the election strenuous and unceasing efforts were made to secure votes for the amendment. Many prominent Nebraska men and women spoke and worked for it and a number were brought into the State. On July 6 was issued in Omaha the famous Manifesto by the Nebraska Men's Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, a pamphlet of nine pages, signed by thirty prominent men, all of Omaha.[109] Early in July Park Commissioner J. B. Hummel of Omaha refused to grant any more permits for meetings in the parks and the suffragists arranged a voiceless automobile parade through all of them when they were filled with people, the cars decorated with banners and pennants carrying suffrage sentiments. Later the commissioner spoke for the amendment. On August 4 the first street meeting was held by "General" Rosalie Jones of New York, who spoke from the steps of the county court house at noon and on a corner in the evening. This was followed by street meetings in an endless number of towns. County fairs and all possible forms of publicity were utilized. An outstanding feature of the campaign was the automobile tours, the plan of Mrs. F. M. Hall, chairman of Lancaster county. They covered 20,000 miles and included 500 places containing one-half of the population. Several of the longest were made and financed by J. L. Kennedy and James Richardson of Omaha and W. E. Hardy of Lincoln.
Miss Jane Addams came from Chicago and spoke several times in October. William Jennings Bryan, who was making a political canvass of the State, never failed to make an appeal for the amendment and on October 31 gave a rousing suffrage speech in Brandeis Theater, Omaha. Dr. Shaw ended her tour of the State on the 30th, with an address in the auditorium.