The Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association of Oregon sent out from Portland May 21 to the retail liquor dealers and druggists the following secret circular, printed on its official paper, headed with the names of thirteen breweries and nineteen wholesale liquor houses:
Dear Sir:—Two laws are to be voted on at the election June 4, which are of vital importance to every liquor merchant in Oregon without exception. The first is woman suffrage. The second is the amendment to the local option law. The members of this association have worked hard for a long time on both these matters ... but, being few in number, they can not by themselves pass the local option amendment or defeat woman suffrage. That part of the work is up to the retailers. We write this letter earnestly to ask you to help.
It will take 50,000 votes to defeat woman suffrage. It will take 50,000 votes to pass the amendment to the local option law. There are 2,000 retailers in Oregon. That means that every retailer must himself bring in 25 votes on election day. Every retailer can get 25 votes. Besides his employees he has his grocer, his butcher, his landlord, his laundryman and every person he does business with. If every man in the business will do this we will win.
We enclose 25 ballot tickets, showing how these two laws will appear on the ballot and how to vote. If you will personally take 25 friendly voters to the polls on election day and give each one a ticket showing how to vote, please mail this postal card back to us at once. You need not sign the card. Every card has a number and we will know who sent it in. Let us all pull together and let us all work. Let us each get 25 votes.
The election took place June 4, 1906, and resulted in an adverse majority of 10,173 in a vote of about 84,000. Besides the money raised in Oregon the National Suffrage Association expended on this campaign $18,075. Of this amount $3,768 were used in the preliminary work of 1905. All of the eastern workers except the organizers contributed their services and several defrayed their own expenses.
The women decided to go immediately into another campaign. The Legislative Assembly of 1907 refused to submit the amendment and the State Association again circulated an initiative petition to have it submitted. Miss Clay contributed $300 toward the expense of it; Mr. and Miss Blackwell also contributed liberally and the requisite number of names was secured. Mrs. Duniway in reporting this campaign said: "It was more like that of 1900, as only Oregon women took part and no large meetings were held." There were a few less votes in favor of the amendment in 1908 than in 1906 and 11,739 more against it.
The State Association filed a petition for another initiative measure immediately after this defeat. It was quite a different proposition, however, as it read: "No citizen who is a taxpayer shall be denied the right to vote on account of sex." Both men and women, many of them the staunchest suffragists, openly opposed it and it was bitterly fought by labor and fraternal organizations. No campaign was attempted except from the State president's office and there was general satisfaction when it was defeated in 1910 by a majority of 22,600.
A reorganization of the State work in 1906 after the election had resulted in Mrs. Duniway's again resuming the presidency with the following board: Vice-president-at-large, Mrs. Elizabeth Lord; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Elizabeth Craig; recording secretary, Miss Emma Buckman; financial secretary, Mrs. A. Bonham; treasurer, Mrs. W. E. Potter; auditors, Mrs. Frederick Eggert and Mrs. Martha Dalton; honorary president, Mrs. Coe. This board practically remained intact until 1912. In the two disastrous campaigns of 1908 and 1910, against the protest of many, the "still hunt" method was employed and no state-wide organization was attempted. With indomitable courage the board again circulated an initiative petition and had the amendment for full suffrage put on the 1912 ballot. Although it was unnecessary for the Legislature to vote for its submission it did so in order to give it more weight.
The women of the State now grew restive and began to agitate for organization for the coming campaign. During 1910 and 1911 Washington and California had enfranchised their women and Oregon remained the only "black" State on the Pacific Coast. This was a matter of great humiliation to the women who had worked for suffrage at least a score of years, as well as to the progressive young women who were beginning to fill the thinning ranks of the pioneer workers.
In December, 1911, Dr. Shaw, the national president, wrote a very strong letter to some of the women severely criticizing their apathy and lack of preparation for this campaign. This was brought to the attention of the State president, who later wrote: "Although urged from many sides and by some of the ablest women of the State to begin a campaign for 1912 in the summer of 1911, I withstood all such requests." A division of opinion arose among the women of Portland regarding the wisdom of delay and Dr. Shaw's letter was submitted to the Woman's Club, an organization which up to this time had taken no active part in work for suffrage. Now a motion prevailed to enter into the campaign and authorize the president, Mrs. A. King Wilson, to appoint a committee for this purpose. The personnel of the committee was: Mrs. Frederick Eggert, Mrs. William Fear, Mrs. George McMillan, Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy, Mrs. Grace Watt Ross, Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, chairman; Mrs. William Strandborg, secretary. This committee waited on the State president and submitted a plan whereby all the various groups of women which were forming might be co-ordinated and operate from one headquarters, the committee offering to assume all financial expense for them. The plan was not approved by her and the committee and all other groups were compelled to work independently of the State organization.
The Portland Woman's Club Committee opened headquarters in January, 1912, occupying two rooms in a centrally located office building for the entire ten months of the campaign. Dr. Shaw, through the generosity of a friend, contributed $200 a month toward their maintenance. Mrs. Strandborg, a newspaper woman of large experience, sent every two weeks a short, spicy letter to 210 papers throughout the State. Many appreciative notices were given by the press.
Almost simultaneously with the opening of headquarters by this committee a number of independent societies were formed for propaganda, which sent out organizers and by summer there were no counties and but few towns or hamlets without a suffrage society. With the assistance of Miss Anita Whitney of California and Mrs. Helen Hoy Greeley of New York the women of Oregon University organized a large college suffrage club; the State Agricultural College did the same and these were rapidly emulated by the smaller colleges and schools. The State Federation of Labor endorsed it and sent organizers into the field as did many fraternal associations.