Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/133

FLORIDA 119 Columbia county, the leader of the Senate. He took up our bill, placed it on the special calendar and advised us in our procedure, the bill having come into the Senate with favorable recommendation from the committee. Again the weary wait- ing, the petty legislation, the filibustering of the 'corporation' members and the whisky men, and at last a motion to postpone indefinitely was carried by one majority, 15 to 16, the sixteenth man being one who had been with us from the first until this moment." The Legislature meets every two years and in 1915 the State association, which had now sixteen well organized branches, was sponsor for the bill, or resolution, and a large number of legislators had promised their support. Hearings were granted by both Houses, but it was defeated. In 1917 strenuous efforts were again made in behalf of a State constitutional amendment. Mrs. William Jennings Bryan, who now had a winter home in Florida, was among those who addressed the Legislature in favor of it, and on April 23 the resolution to submit the amendment passed the Senate by 23 to 7. The struggle was then begun in the House but the corporate and liquor interests combined with the non-progressive character of many of the members accomplished its defeat. In April, 1919, the State Federation of Women's Clubs, which now had a suffrage chairman, co-operated with the State Equal Suffrage Association in the effort to obtain a Primary Suffrage Bill, such as had been passed by the Legislatures of Arkansas and Texas. Mrs. McMahon, a national organizer, and Miss Skinner did organizing and legislative work from March 6 to April 22. The former was sent to work for Presidential suf- e, but the State Board believed that Primary suffrage had a better chance. This, however, met with so much opposition that it was never brought up. The moment the Federal Amend- ment was submitted by Congress a delegation of women Mrs. ik Stranahan, chairman of the Legislative Committee; Dr. rd, Mrs. W. S. Jennings, Mrs. Edgar A. Lewis went to Tallahassee to try to have the Legislature ratify it, arriving one before adjournment. They quickly canvassed the members found a small majority willing to vote for it but there was