Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/239

LOUISIANA 225 but in New Orleans and other cities thousands received urgent letters from Miss Gordon and other leaders. Notwithstanding these adverse conditions, the majority against the amendment was only 3,600, nearly all of it in New Orleans, where it was the result of direct orders from Mayor Martin Behrman, through the ward "bosses" of a perfectly controlled "machine." From parish after parish in the State came reports of precincts not even being opened on account of the epidemic and the weather. There is no doubt that others which reported an adverse majority were really carried for the amendment. At a public meeting of protest immediately after Miss Gordon made an address recalling the glorious history of the Democratic party and comparing it with this election which had repudiated its highest principles. In 1920 the State Suffrage Association stood alone in again having a resolution introduced for amending the State constitu- tion, all the other suffrage societies concentrating on the ratifica- tion of the Federal Amendment, which had been submitted by Congress on June 4. It was presented in the Lower House by I. L. Upton, in the Senate by J. O. Stewart. They were fol- lowed immediately by Representative S. O. Shattuck and Senator Xorris C. Williamson with one to ratify the Federal Amendment. At the close of the session Miss Jean Gordon issued the following statement : T the Frieiiols uf Woman Suffrage: w that the smoke of battle has cleared ... as president of the association I feel that an unbiased statement of facts should be given in order that the history of woman suffrage in this State may be correctly recorded. Having been at Baton Rouge from the open- ing clay of the Legislature until its adjournment I can give all the and some of the reasons for one of the most remarkable con- s ever held in Louisiana. <<! amendment to the State constitution having been ted in pjitt by the malevolent influences of the influenza throughout the State and Mayor Behrman in New Orleans, it was another sent to the voters in 1920. S3 having submitted a Federal Amendment to the Legisla- 'r<l that men and women who believe in g the voting power in ( would work for its ratifi- , hut that those who claimed to be ardent suffragists would lefeat State >ubmission after they fountl the sentiment for < ation amounted to almost nothing in both Houses seems incred- The fact remains, however, that while the actual defeat of the