Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/234

22O HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE Belmont brought with her Miss Christabel Pankhurst of Great Britain and both made addresses. About $1,500 were pledged. Miss Gordon said in her president's address: "The Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference has for its immediate object to make the Democratic party declare itself in favor of votes for women in its next national platform. This, we southern suf- fragists believe, is the first step in what will prove a veritable landslide in the South. The conference therefore recommends to the suffragists of the South the adoption of a policy of concen- tration upon the Democratic party to declare itself." In December, 1915, a national conference was held in Rich- mond, Va. Smaller conferences were held in Atlanta, Green- ville, S. C., and Little Rock. Miss Gordon visited most of the cities of the South to organize the women. In July, 1916, an executive meeting was held in St. Louis at the time of the national Democratic convention. Its Resolutions Committee gave a hearing to the representatives of the conference, Miss Clay, Mrs. O. F. Ellington of Little Rock, Mrs. Boyer, Mrs. Wesley Martin Stoner of Washington. Miss Gordon made an extended appeal for an endorsement of woman suffrage in the party platform and presented a resolution to "secure for women self-government while preserving to the State a like self-govern- ment." This was not adopted, but the platform did recommend "the extension of suffrage to the women of the country by the States/' Although the principal object of the conference had been attained, its leaders hesitated to dissolve it because of its excel- lent magazine and work yet to be done. It was maintained until May, 1917, when the entrance of this country into the World War made its discontinuance seem advisable. 1 LEGISLATIVE ACTION. Prior to 1904 it was an unheard of thing for women in Louisiana to take an active part in legislative procedure. A woman's club, the Arena, had been instrumental in obtaining the first "age of consent" legislation, but a Unitarian minister had entirely managed the Legislature. Therefore the tyros who formed the first Legislative Committee of the Era Club showed their ignorance and enthusiasm when their program 1 Further matter on the Conference will be found in Vol. V, Chapter XXI.