District presidents and chairmen of committees: Dora Kirkpatrick, Janet C. Broeck, Elizabeth Burt, Ethel Lewis, Mrs. H. J. Bonnell, Mrs. O. A. Mitscher, Mrs. C. C. Conlan, Effie M. Ralls, E. Irene Yeoman.
[149] Many ardent suffragists found they could not stand up against the statewide comment that the women should be doing only war work but the cooperation in many counties was splendid and there is not space enough to name those who stood by throughout the struggle. To those already mentioned should be added Judge and Mrs. D. A. McDougal of Sapulpa, Mrs. Robert Ray of Lawton, Mrs. B. W. Slagle of Shawnee, Mrs. Hardee Russell of Paul's Valley, Mrs. Lamar Looney of Hollis, Mrs. Francis Agnew of Altus, Mrs. Eugene B. Lawson of Nowata, Mrs. Annette B. Ahler of Hennessey, Mrs. Olive Snider of Tulsa. Among the men to be specially mentioned are James J. McGraw of Ponca City, member of the National Republican Committee; Tom Wade of Marlow, member of the National Democratic Committee; George L. Bowman of Kingfisher, Alger Melton of Chickasha, Colonel E. M. McPherron of Durant and Bird McGuire of Tulsa.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
OREGON.[150]
The advent of 1901 found the suffrage cause in Oregon almost becalmed upon a sea of indifference. With an ultra conservative population, defeats in five previous campaigns, the existence of bitter prejudices and an utter lack of cooperation among the suffragists themselves, the outlook was almost hopeless, except for the one outstanding fact that each failure had carried the women a little nearer their goal. An inactive State organization had been maintained for years and in 1901-1904 the officers were: President, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway; vice-president-at-large, Dr. Annice Jeffreys; vice-president, Mrs. Ada Cornish Hertsche; corresponding secretary, Miss Frances Gotshall; recording secretary, Mrs. W. H. Games; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe. No regular conventions were held.
Mrs. Duniway, the mother of suffrage in Oregon, always advocated the "still hunt," preferring to centralize and individualize the effort through prominent men and women rather than through a large and general organization. Shortly before her death in 1915, speaking of her work she said: "Occasionally I would gather a few women together in a suffrage society but on the whole I did not find my time thus spent at all profitable. Some traveling lecturer would often come along and after speaking before the little local band of a dozen members would receive the contents of the treasury, leaving the society to ravel out for lack of funds. These experiences led me to give up organizing suffrage societies, as I had learned that lecturing, writing serial stories and editorials and correspondence afforded a more rational means of spreading the light.... The only time for general, active organization is after a few devoted workers have succeeded in using the press for getting the movement squarely before the voters in the shape of a proposed State suffrage amendment."
This will answer very largely the many criticisms that came from the National Association and from equal suffrage States over the apathy of Oregon women from 1900 to 1904. What the result might have been, with the State and national growth of suffrage sentiment, had there been a strong, active organization is problematic, but Oregon might have had the proud distinction of being first instead of last of the Pacific Coast States to liberate her women politically. In 1905 the following officers were elected: Honorary president, Mrs. Duniway; president, Mrs. Coe; vice-president, Dr. Jeffreys Myers; secretary, Dr. Luema G. Johnson; treasurer, Mrs. Abbie C. French; auditors, Dr. Mary Thompson, Mrs. Martha Dalton and Mrs. Frederick Aggert.
The Legislature had many times submitted the amendment but its repeated failures had discouraged the most ardent supporters in that body. The gains in the various campaigns were not sufficient, they argued, to warrant the expense of resubmission in the near future. This reason was freely and courageously given from the Chair of the Senate by one of the staunchest friends suffrage ever had in the State, the Hon. C. W. Fulton, when he voted "no" on re-submission in the Legislature of 1899, and the defeat of 1900 intensified this feeling.