Legislative Action: The State Association from its beginning in 1884 made Municipal Suffrage its chief object. In 1885 a bill for this purpose was presented in the House by Frank J. Kelly. It was favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee, but although advanced somewhat on the calendar it was too far down to reach a vote.
At a special session in 1886 the bill was reported to the House by the committee on Political Rights of Women, and a large force of competent women went to Topeka to urge its passage. On February 10 it stood eighth from the top on the calendar. On February 11, when the Committee on Revision submitted its report, it stood sixty-first. A strong protest was made by its friends on the floor and by a standing vote it was restored to its original place. The enemies were now thoroughly alarmed. A State election was close at hand and the Prohibitionists were crowding the Republicans. The bill was practically a Republican measure and its opponents in that party hit upon the scheme of getting up a Third Party scare. They were led by ex-Gov. George T. Anthony who declared he would spend his last cent to defeat the bill. It was denounced by press and politicians as a sly Prohibition trick, some of its best friends were thus silenced and it was quietly smothered. The bill was introduced in the Senate by L. B. Kellogg and favorably reported from the Judiciary Committee with an opposing minority report. It was ably championed by himself, Senators H. B. Kelly and R. W. Blue, but was eventually stricken from the calendar by the Committee on Revision and a motion to reinstate was lost by 12 yeas, 25 nays, on February 16.
When the Legislature convened in 1887 the election was over and had resulted favorably for the Republicans. The suffragists had spent the intervening ten months in a campaign of their own. Miss Anthony had come to Kansas and they had held conven Mesdames Ella W. Brown, Bina A. Otis, Luella R. Kraybill, Antoinette L. Haskell; librarians, Mrs. May Belleville Brown, Dr. Emily Newcomb; State organizer, Miss Jennie Newby; superintendent press work, Mrs. Nannie K. Garrett. A number of these filled various offices and some of them bore the brunt of the work continuously for years. Other names which appear frequently are J. K. Hudson, editor Topeka Capital, Dr. Sarah C. Hall,-Mesdames M. E. De Geer, M. S. Woods, E. D. Garlick, E. A. Elder, L. B. Kellogg, Jennie Robb Maher, Miss Emma Harriman, the Rev. W. A. Simkins, Judge Nathan Cree, Walter S. Wait, Sarah W. Rush, Dr. J. E. Spaulding, Dr. F. M. W. Jackson, Henrietta B. Wall, Mrs. Lucy B. Johnston, Miss Genevieve L. Hawley.
