FEDERAL AMENDMENT FOR WOMAN SUFFRAGE 627 mass suffrage meetings in theaters were held in Washington. The large corps of newspaper correspondents were constantly sup- plied with news. Countless suffrage meetings were held in Mary- land, Virginia and all the way up to New York and the members were kept constantly informed of the activities in their ownjiis- tricts. On September 18 Senator Ashurst announced on the floor of the Senate that he would press the resolution to a vote at the earliest possible moment and Senator Andrieus A. Jones of New Mexico spoke in favor and asked for immediate action. During the regular session in 1914 the resolution was discussed at different times and many strong speeches in favor were made. Tin.' Senate vote, which was taken on March 19, stood, ayes, 35 : noes, 34; lacking eleven of a necessary two-thirds majority. Twenty Republicans, one Progressive and fourteen Democrats voted aye; twelve Republicans and twenty-two Democrats voted no; ten Republicans and sixteen Democrats were absent. For the first time southern Senators declared in favor of giving suf- frage to women by amending the National Constitution Sena- Owen, Ransdell, Luke Lea of Tennessee and Morris Shep- pard of Texas voting in the affirmative. For a trial vote this was considered satisfactory. The effort in the Lower House was not so successful. Its Judiciary Com- mittee had been continuously opposed to allowing the amendment ach the Representatives, but two favorable majority reports having been made in the thirty-six years during which the ques- tion had been before it ( 1 883. iS<;o). A larger Congressional tnittee had been formed by the National Suffrage Associa- tion, of which the chairman was Mrs. Ruth Hanna McCormick, a daughter of former U. S. Senator Mark Hanna, who had in- herited her father's genius for constructive politics. Head- quarters were opened in the Munsey Huilding in Washington and the work was divided into three departments Lobby, Publicity and Organization. Cart-fill and systematic effort was made and llowrd by the Senate vote recorded above. A record was
- .iled of the votes of every member of I on prohibi-
tion, child labor and various humanitarian and welfare- measures and sent to the women in his district for use in urging him to vote i rage amendment. Organizers were placed where
