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MISSISSIPPI 337 constitution. The members of the Equity League gave assist- ance; Mrs. Isaac Reese of Memphis was invited to come to the Capitol and on the day the vote was taken she and Miss Kearney made brief speeches before the Senate. On motion of Senator P. E. Carothers the question was submitted without debate, which a disappointment to its friends, H. H. Casteel of Holmes county declaring that he had remained up nearly all of the night before preparing his speech. The vote was a tie, 21 to 21. The House took no action. Through the years the officers and members of the State and local suffrage associations united with those of other women's organizations to obtain laws. The age of consent was raised first to 12, then to 16 and in 1914 to 18; better child labor laws were secured; the law permitting a father to dispose of the children by will at his death was repealed. It is a fact not generally known that Mississippi was the pioneer State in securing to married women the right to own and dispose of property. This was done by an Act of the Legislature on Feb. 15, 1839. RATIFICATION. Congress submitted the Federal Amendment in June, and the Ratification Committee was organized in Novem- ber. It opened its headquarters in Jackson at the beginning of the legislative session in January, 1920, after having made a whirlwind campaign. At the initial meeting of the committee in Clarksburg there had been great enthusiasm and women gave money as they never had done before. Mrs. B. F. Saunders was made chairman and among those who worked with her in Jackson were Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Trotter, Mrs. Sam Covington, Miss Blanche Rogers, Mrs. Thompson, Miss Kearney, Mrs. Annie Neely and Mrs. Cunningham of Texas. The legislators were matically interviewed, literature distributed, petitions cir- .ted and the press kept supplied with arguments and news. Mrs. Thompson, in charge of the Jackson press, wrote innu- tble articles, and Mrs. Somerville and others contributed to the press work. letters, telegrams and petitions from all over the < urging ratification poured in daily upon both lloiisc-s. Delegations of women came to urge their represent at ives to vote for ratification. Nine influential women came from Landerdale county bringing a petition of 2,100 names of prominent people