The first concerted effort made by the State Association was at Salem Feb. 16, 1912, in the Hall of Representatives by permission of Secretary of State Ben Olcott. A large number of suffragists were present. The speakers were Governor Oswald West; Mrs. Olive English Enright; Mrs. Greeley and Miss Whitney. Mrs. Duniway became seriously ill immediately after this meeting and the work of the association fell upon Mrs. Coe, who courageously assumed the responsibility. In the secretary, Miss Buckman, she had an able assistant, and also in Mrs. L. W. Therkelsen, Mrs. H. R. Reynolds, Dr. Marie D. Equi and Dr. Victoria Hampton, close friends of Mrs. Duniway. On March 8 Mrs. Coe called a meeting at the headquarters in the Selling Building in Portland, two rooms having been generously donated by the Hon. Ben Selling to be jointly used by the State association and the College League. The State work was definitely launched by the appointment of the following committees: Finance, Mrs. J. A. Fouilhoux, Mrs. Elliott Corbet, Dr. Florence Manion; literature, Mrs. Louise Trullinger, Mrs. A. E. Clark, Miss Emma Wold, Miss Blanche Wren; ways and means, Dr. Florence Brown Cassiday, Mrs. Caroline Hepburn, Mrs. C. B. Woodruff.
In June the General Federation of Women's Clubs met in San Francisco and many of the prominent women in attendance arranged to return via Oregon, the New York special train stopping over for one day. It was met twelve miles out and escorted to Portland and met at the depot by a brass band.
In the afternoon a meeting was held in the Taylor Street Methodist Church with many unable to obtain admittance. Miss Mary Garrett Hay of New York; Mrs. H. C. Warren of New Jersey; Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Kentucky; Miss Helen Varick Boswell and Miss Mary Wood of New York, and Professor Frances Squire Potter of Minnesota University, were among the speakers. The last four remained for several days and spoke at the great Gladstone Chautauqua. One of the most noteworthy incidents of the campaign was a debate here between Mrs. Breckinridge and the Rev. Clarence True Wilson, secretary of the Committee of Temperance and Morals for the Methodist Church. The reverend gentleman was the white hope of the anti-suffragists. His exalted calling and his official position as a prohibitionist, camouflaged the relation between the two extremes of society that were working against the amendment—the liquor people and a group of society women supplemented by a group of prominent men. He had sent the challenge to the Woman's Club Committee and Mrs. Breckinridge took up the gauntlet. Three thousand people saw him, completely routed, retire from the platform while Mrs. Breckinridge and "the cause" got a tremendous ovation. Mr. Wilson and William D. Wheelwright were the only two men who took the platform against the amendment. The women "antis" were led by Mrs. A. E. Rockey, Mrs. Ralph Wilber, Mrs. Robert Lewis and the Misses Etta and May Failing.
The committee maintained a speakers' bureau and sent out thousands of pieces of literature. Among the first to enter the campaign was a Men's Equal Suffrage Club, organized and promoted by W. M. Davis, a prominent attorney of Portland, which soon became an active state-wide organization. Mr. Davis was the legal adviser of all the women's organizations.
Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, an early worker and one of the most liberal financial supporters of the campaign, went directly into the camp of the enemy and organized a group of society women in the Portland Equal Suffrage League. No one feature stands out more conspicuously for results than a "tea" she gave for Sir Forbes-Robertson in her palatial home, to which she invited about two hundred guests, most of whom were radical anti-suffragists, but many of them went away converts after hearing the presentation of the subject by the guest of honor. Mrs. Hirsch also brought the Rev. Charles A. Aked of San Francisco.
Dr. Coe was the first president of the Portland College League and when she had to assume the duties of the State president, Miss Emma Wold filled her place. The largest suffrage meeting up to that time was under the auspices of this league at Oaks Amusement Park, where Mrs. Sara Bard Field (Ergott) and C. E. S. Wood, a brilliant orator, addressed more than 10,000 people. Mrs. A. C. Newill established the Cooperative Civic League, which did active work with the State association. Dr. Lovejoy organized Every Body's League late in the campaign but succeeded in gathering hundreds of unattached men and women into the ranks of the workers. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union added its mighty strength and did valiant service under the able leadership of Mrs. Lucia Faxton Additon, Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden and Mrs. Ada Wallace Unruh.
On Nov. 5, 1912, the equal suffrage amendment was carried by a majority of 4,161, not by any one person or by any one organization, for no individual or single organization could have compassed the work required to put the State "over the top" with even this meagre majority in a total vote of 118,369. When the heights were reached, however, all were ready to lay the laurels at the feet of Abigail Scott Duniway, Martha A. Dalton, Charlotte M. Cartwright and Dr. Mary Thompson, the pioneers who had borne the heat and burden of the early days. Governor West paid Mrs. Duniway the compliment of inviting her to write the proclamation of woman suffrage and jointly with him to sign it, and John Coffey, the county clerk, carried the registration book to her sick room so that she might be the first woman in Oregon to register.
At the close of this arduous campaign the women folded their hands for a quiet rest until the cry for help came from other States. It was a most difficult task to gather up the broken threads of so many organizations and again rouse them to enthusiasm. Dr. Lovejoy, however, at the earnest request of Dr. Shaw, sent out a general call for a conference in March, 1915. At this meeting the State Suffrage Alliance was formed with Mrs. William Ogburn as first president. Those who followed her in the office were: Mrs. Thomas Burk, Mrs. Kelley Rees, Mrs. Elliott Corbett and Mrs. C. B. Simmons. It gave its assistance to the unenfranchised States and was ready to respond to any call from the national president.
Ratification. The Alliance was largely instrumental in having a special session of the Legislature called to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment. This was done by unanimous vote in the House January 12 and in the Senate January 13, 1920, and Governor Oswald West affixed his signature on the 14th. The resolution was introduced in the lower House by Mrs. Alexander Thompson, a member.
On March 6, 1920, at a called meeting the women organized a League of Women Voters and Mrs. Charles E. Curry was elected chairman.