By the end of the year only four cities with a population of five thousand or over were still unorganized. In December Miss Mary Pleasant Jones organized the Nashville Business Women's League with a large membership. Organization was continued during 1915. Through the courtesy of Judge Samuel C. Brown, the Circuit Court at Benton was suspended for an hour to hear the speeches of Miss Wester, Miss Sarah Ruth Frazier and Mrs. Ford and a club was then organized with 100 members. Mrs. Ford organized the Business Woman's Suffrage Club of Chattanooga with 160 charter members. A Men's Suffrage Club was formed there, the first in the State, R. B. Cook, George Fort Milton and J. B. F. Lowery, officers.
This year the suffragists assisted a vigorous campaign to secure a majority vote for holding a convention to prepare a new constitution, opened headquarters in the different cities and worked day and night, and they received letters of high appreciation from the chairman of the State committee. The convention really won but was lost by dishonest election returns. The annual convention was held at the Hotel Patton, Chattanooga, December 9, Mrs. McCormack presiding. In 1912 a treasury fund of $5.50 was turned over to the new treasurer, Miss Wester, who handled in 1915 $1,127. The National Association this year elected Mrs. McCormack auditor.
National Suffrage Day, May 2, 1916, was celebrated in all of the larger cities. The Business Women's Club brought Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England and Miss Margaret Foley of Boston to Chattanooga and the 5,000 capacity auditorium was packed. The State Federation of Women's Clubs, which was to hold its convention there May 3, was invited to attend and the next day it passed a woman suffrage resolution by a vote of 96 to 43.
In May woman suffrage planks were secured in both the Republican and Democratic State platforms, after which the State officers living in Chattanooga had a 25-foot streamer prepared with the following words on it: Tennessee Leads the South, The State Federation, Republican and Democratic Parties Endorse Woman Suffrage, and had it stretched across the main street. Over night Police Commissioner E. R. Betterton had made a ruling that banners could no longer hang over the street and three policemen with the patrol wagon "arrested" it. The women secured the release of the culprit and through the courtesy of E. A. Abbott, a merchant, it was placed over the front of his store and there it hung for several weeks. On June 13 it was taken to the National Democratic convention at St. Louis, where it gave its silent message hanging on the wall of the lobby of the hotel in which the Tennessee delegation had headquarters. Mrs. Dudley and Mrs. Ford addressed the Tennessee delegates to the convention urging them to vote for the woman suffrage plank, which they did unanimously.
Mrs. Catt held a successful congressional conference in Memphis, spoke at several large meetings and the biggest automobile parade ever seen in the city added to the occasion.[170] Federal Amendment Day was celebrated in twenty-six cities and thousands of leaflets were distributed. In October the legislative chairman wrote to all candidates for Congress asking their position on suffrage and eight declared in favor. In November those elected were interviewed and banquets, luncheons and receptions given them on the eve of their leaving for Washington.
In order to unite the two State associations Mrs. Catt suggested that they hold their conventions at about the same time in the same city. The Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association, Mrs. McCormack president, set its convention for Jan. 5, 6, 1917, and that of the other was announced for the 9th, both in Nashville. The former was held at the Hotel Hermitage, large and enthusiastic, with the principal speakers Clyde Shropshire, Speaker of the House, the Hon. George L. Berry, Dixon Merritt, editor of the Tennesseean, and Miss Laura Clay. Mrs. Ford was elected president. The latter postponed its convention to January 30-31, which made the union impossible. On February 22 the former association offered its services to Governor Rye to be utilized as he should see fit, should the United States enter the war. Mrs. Catt called a meeting of the Executive Council of the National Association for the 23rd in Washington to consider offering its assistance to President Wilson and Mrs. Ford represented Tennessee. The suffragists of this State, as did those of every other, rallied to the colors. Many served in France and thousands at home in every field of activity where women were permitted, in army and navy, in citizen service, Red Cross, Government bond sales, etc., and their devoted service proved a most effective plea for their enfranchisement.
On March 26, 1918, the boards of the two associations met in Memphis at the Professional and Business Women's Club, with Mrs. Allen, honorary president, in the chair. A union was effected and Mrs. Leslie Warner was unanimously elected president of the amalgamated associations. Mrs. Warner spoke at the State Federation of Women's Clubs in Jackson and after one session she asked all to remain who were interested in suffrage. About 90 per cent. did so and an enthusiastic meeting was held. Her next work was to secure resolutions in favor of the Federal Suffrage Amendment and protests against further delay in the Senate. She spoke before nineteen organizations of various kinds, all of which passed the desired resolutions. It was also endorsed by the Democratic and Republican State Committees.
As vice-chairman of the Woman's Committee Council of National Defense, Mrs. Warner introduced Dr. Shaw, its chairman, to an audience of 7,000 people at Nashville in April. In July she called 200 suffragists from all sections of the State for a hearing before U. S. Senator John K. Shields, hoping they might convince him that the Tennessee women did want the ballot, as one of his reasons for voting against the Federal Amendment was that they did not. Later when pressed by the women for a declaration during his candidacy for re-election he gave to the press his correspondence with President Wilson who had urged him to vote for it, to whom he wrote: "If I could bring myself to believe that the adoption of the resolution would contribute to the successful prosecution of the war we are waging with Germany I would unhesitatingly vote for it, because my whole heart and soul are involved in bringing the war to a victorious issue and I am willing to sacrifice everything save the honor and freedom of our country in aiding you to accomplish that end, but I have been unable to do so...."
The President said in reply: "I realize the weight of argument that has controlled your attitude in the matter and I would not have written as I did if I had not thought that the passage of the amendment at this time was an essential psychological element in the conduct of the war for democracy. I am led by a single sentence in your letter, therefore, to say that I do earnestly believe that our action upon this amendment will have an important and immediate influence upon the whole atmosphere and morale of the nations engaged in the war and every day I am coming to see how supremely important that side of the whole thing is."
On August 8 the State Bar Association passed a strong resolution endorsing woman suffrage by Federal Amendment. The president, Colonel Ed Watkins, in his annual address, included a strong plea for it and Judge David V. Puryear introduced the resolution. Miss Elizabeth Lea Miller and Mrs. Ford, the first women members of the association; Mrs. John Lamar Meek and others worked for it. Col. Joseph H. Acklen gave his services as attorney for years to the State association without charge. Urgent petitions which bore the names of all the leading Democrats of the State, arranged on a large sheet with the photograph of and a quotation from President Woodrow Wilson, were sent to Senator Shields. The State board sent petitions to the legislators urging that they ask him to vote for the Federal Amendment resolution, which lacked only two votes of passing the Senate, but he opposed it to the end.