Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/188

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

174 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE suffrage workers to voters necessitated a different sort of activ- ity. Organizers were still employed to some extent and suffrage propaganda used in the more remote counties but the stress was laid upon teaching women to use the vote intelligently and appre- ciate the power it gives. A Citizenship School of the nature of a Normal School was held in Indianapolis in October and women from all over the State attended a five days' session and heard talks on the nature and various functions of the government and the duties of citizens, by men and women who were experts in their various lines. They took back to their own towns the inspiration received and these schools were carried on quite generally. The State Superintendent of Education sent out a bulletin asking the teachers to give their aid and recommending that the public schools be used for this work. A monograph entitled An Aid to the Citizen in Indiana was prepared by Miss Martha Block of Terre Haute and published by the league. This movement to train the new voters commanded the respect of educators and several professors in educational institutions offered their services as teachers in the schools of citizenship. The convention of April, 1920, was the end of the Franchise League. With the near ratification of the Federal Amendment work for suffrage seemed to be finished in Indiana. As a Presi- dential suffrage bill had been passed by the General Assembly the women of the State were already partial voters, so the league disbanded and in its place was formed the State League of Women Voters, with Mrs. A. H. Beardsley of Elkhart as presi- dent. The branches became auxiliaries and the leaders realized that the task of getting the vote was nearly accomplished that of using it had just begun. LEGISLATIVE ACTION. 1901. Through the efforts of the Equal Suffrage Association a resolution for an amendment to the State constitution to strike out the word "male" in the suffrage section was introduced. In the Senate it was buried in committee. In the House it received a vote of 49 ayes, 33 noes a two-thirds majority being necessary. Later it was reconsidered and passed by a vote of 52 to 32. This vote was also recon- sidered and the amendment laid on the table. 1907. Municipal suffrage bill was defeated by the Senate.