Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/344

33 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE at the evening session. Editor C. E. Glasco gave an earnest talk at a morning session. The department chairmen brought encour- aging reports of their work. A letter was read from Colonel Clay Sharkey of Jackson, which later was published in leaflet form. The State meeting was held at Flora in April, 1912. Mrs. Judith Hyams Douglas, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, and Omar Garwood of Colorado, secretary of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage, were the principal speakers. The president, Mrs. Somerville, recommended that the various State organizations of women be invited to unite with the suffrage association in forming a central committee to secure such legislation as should be agreed upon by all. This was after- wards accepted by the Federation of Women's Clubs and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Resolutions were passed, regretting the retirement from the presidency of Mrs. Somer- ville, to whose good generalship during the past four years the success of the association was in a large part due. Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson was elected president. In response to the call to take part in the parade in Wash- ington March 3, 1913, Mrs. Avery Harrell Thompson, temporarily residing there, was put in charge and with her husband, Harmon L. Thompson, arranged for a handsome float, on which Miss Fannie May Witherspoon, daughter of the member of Congress, represented Mississippi. Mr. Gibbs, a Mississippian, carried the purple and gold silk banner of the State Suffrage Association and four other young Mississippians, Judge Allen Thompson and his brother, Harmon, Walter and Edward Dent, marched beside the float, preforming valiant volunteer police duty when it became necessary. During this year the enrolled membership increased four-fold. Quarterly reports, nearly a thousand, were printed for the first time instead of written. A letter from the Irish Women's League of Dublin and one from the English Women's Equal Rights Union to the State president indicated the world- wide spirit of fraternalism which embraced even Mississippi's modest organization. Good work was done by the new superin- tendent of press work, Mrs. Dent. Not only did editors by this time willingly accept material but some of them wrote favorable editorials. The Yazoo City Herald, edited by N. A. Mott, was