A State amendment for full suffrage was not again submitted until 1909 and in the interim there was a lull in active work although local clubs were formed as the nucleus of a larger organization. The suffrage lobby, usually the same as the W. C. T. U. lobby, appeared at each session of the Legislature. When a suffrage resolution was introduced it either died in committee or was reported out unfavorably and failed to pass. Always when the question was brought before either House there was a spirited debate and the suffragists then continued their campaign through literature and other means.
In October, 1902, Mrs. Pickler called a conference at Watertown which decided to take advantage of the initiative and referendum, that the State had adopted in 1897. Not realizing that it did not apply to constitutional amendments, the suffragists in 1903 at great expense and effort secured the signatures of the requisite number of voters to a petition asking that a constitutional amendment be submitted to the voters. Secretary of State O. C. Berg was criticized for refusing to receive it for transmission to the Legislature but he could not legally do so, as the initiative applied only to Laws. He was not opposed to woman suffrage and in later years his wife worked for it and his son conducted a newspaper which gave it able support.
Still under the leadership of Mrs. Pickler, the years 1904 and 1905 passed with the usual routine work and in 1906 another petition was begun which had nothing to do with the initiative and referendum but was merely a petition of women as citizens to the Legislature asking that the question be submitted to a vote at the next general election. This work was carried on all summer by a house to house canvass throughout the State and later at the State Fair, with the result that when it convened the women were able to stage a spectacular event by having pages carry up the aisle of the Lower House a list of names thirty-six yards in length. The resolution was introduced and passed the Senate but failed in the House by ten votes.
During all this time Mrs. Anna R. Simmons of Faulkton was president of the State W. C. T. U. and Mrs. Pickler and she did excellent team work, enlisting the aid of many other splendid women. A complete list of them it is unfortunately impossible to secure but many mentioned in Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage continued their services. The years 1907-8 were spent in propaganda work and raising funds and when the Legislature convened in January, 1909, the suffrage and W. C. T. U. lobby was on hand to ask once more for the submission of the question to the voters. Two resolutions for partial suffrage were introduced in the Senate in addition to the one for the amendment. One would confer the vote on property-owning women only and the other would permit women to vote on the liquor question, the State being under local option. Whether they were presented by friends or were a "half loaf" offered by enemies is not known at this late date. They were probably the former, because a vote on the liquor question by women was the last thing the principal opponents wanted and such an amendment if adopted would have speedily put South Dakota in the "dry" column for all time. The resolution to send to the voters an amendment for full suffrage passed both Houses and was signed by Governor Robert S. Vessey. His favorable attitude was a great help to the women, as it had been in former years when he was in the State Senate.
From 1909 the W. C. T. U. continued its suffrage work under its franchise department and the State Suffrage Association was a separate organization. In June, 1909, a suffrage convention was held at Aberdeen and Mrs. Lydia B. Johnson of Fort Pierre was elected president of the State Political Equality League, a new constitution adopted, officers chosen and an invitation extended to all women's organizations to send delegates to a convention at Sioux Falls in the autumn, when plans for the coming campaign would be perfected. This convention met November 6 and from that time until the election in November, 1910, an active campaign was conducted. The amendment was defeated, receiving 35,290 ayes, 57,709 noes, but the workers felt that gains had been made and were more determined than ever not to cease their efforts.
After the election of 1910 Mrs. Johnson called a State convention at Huron and Mrs. John L. Pyle of that city was elected president and continued to serve until the Federal Suffrage Amendment was adopted in 1920. The question was not again brought to the attention of the Legislature until 1913. During the summer of 1911 Mrs. Pyle called a conference at Huron. It seemed advisable to change the method of procedure and the name of the organization, which became the Universal Franchise League. An incident of this conference—amusing now but very serious then—was the earnest discussion of the newly introduced slogan, "Votes for Women," brought over from England. Several precious hours were spent considering whether this was dignified and whether women would not be considered "unladylike" if they adopted it. There was much protest also over being called "suffragettes" when they were really "suffragists," the former being the English for "militants." At this meeting the State was divided into four districts for campaign purposes. Mrs. May Billinghurst of Pierre was chairman for the northeast; Miss Susie Bird of Belle Fourche for the northwest; Mrs. Edith M. Fitch of Hurley for the southeast and the Rev. Katherine Powell of Custer for the southwest, to organize branch leagues in their districts.
Their stories of trying to organize, especially in the western, thinly populated sections of the State would make an interesting volume. Miss Bird, with a horse and buggy, drove hundreds of miles, sometimes forty from one house to the next. There were almost no railroad facilities after leaving the Black Hills district but armed with suffrage literature she drove her trusty steed from place to place, spreading the gospel of suffrage at school houses, private homes or wherever the opportunity presented and organizing little groups.
In July, 1912, Mrs. Pyle called a convention at Huron, where the decision was made to ask the Legislature of 1913 to submit a full suffrage amendment. Officers were re-elected, Mrs. Nina Pettigrew of Belle Fourche took charge of the northwest district in place of Miss Bird, who had resigned, and the president was directed to select her Legislative Committee. It consisted of the Rev. Katherine Powell, Mrs. Billinghurst, Mrs. Ruth B. Hipple of Pierre, Miss Bird for the State Franchise League and Mrs. Simmons of Faulkton; the State president, Mrs. Ruby Jackson of Ipswich, and Miss Rose Bower of Rapid City for the W. C. T. U.
In January, 1913, Mrs. Pyle and her lieutenants met at Pierre, the capital, prepared for action. The hard work, the deep devotion to the cause of the men and women of preceding years had begun to bear fruit and instead of finding a lone member here and there in favor of woman suffrage, now there were many. Hitherto it had been solely a woman's campaign, aided by only a few loyal men who dared brave the ridicule of their brothers. The years of education had begun to change public opinion and the president felt that the time for women to be buttonholing unwilling men in the lobbies in an apologetic manner was past. She called a conference of leading men from both Houses to meet with the Legislative Committee in the office of Attorney General Royal C. Johnson. This call met with a hearty response and plans were made which proved so effective that the amendment resolution was the first measure to pass the Legislature, almost before the opponents knew the suffragists were on the ground. The poll had been so quietly and carefully taken that the committee knew its exact strength in both Houses almost before the resolution was on the calendar. Governor Frank M. Byrne gave his valuable assistance, as he had done when a member of the Senate in preceding years. Mrs. Byrne also was an excellent ally.
The members of the Legislature always referred to this legislative work as "the campaign of Committee Room 2," as this room beside the elevator in the House side of the Capitol had been placed at the disposal of the suffragists. Their committee quietly stayed there while members were summoned one by one, interviewed and pledged if possible. Unsuspecting members, supposing they were summoned by some State official, would come and then would consider it such a good joke that they would say nothing and wait for their neighbor to get caught, so that nearly the entire membership was interviewed before the men began to compare notes.