Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/358

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

344 , HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE the first year the league brought a number of lecturers to the city, realizing that this was the most valuable form of propa- ganda in a community so entrenched in conservatism. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Philip Snowden of England ; Professor Frances Squire Potter of the University of Minnesota; Mrs. Lucia Ames Mead of Boston; Professor Nathaniel Schmidt of Cornell and Professor Earl Barnes of Philadelphia. On Nov. 3, 1911, Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst of England, at the invitation of the league, lectured in the Odeon, the largest hall in the city, to an audience that taxed its capacity. Her charming personality set at rest all fears as to the ill effect of suffrage, even of the "militant" variety, on feminine grace and refinement. Soon afterwards the Mary Institute Alumnae Asso- ciation invited Miss Sylvia Pankhurst to lecture and the result was most gratifying to the friends of suffrage. The old State organization having ceased to exist the St. Louis league with its branches and the recently formed Webster Groves Suffrage League, Mrs. Lee Roseborough, president, met in St. Louis Feb. 14, 1911, and organized a State Woman Suffrage Association, which affiliated with the National American Association. The officers were : President, Mrs. Atkinson ; vice- president, Mrs. Morrison-Fuller; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Boyd; recording secretary, Miss Rombauer; treasurer, Miss Jane Thompson; auditor, Mrs. R. D. McArthur. Owing to various causes this board was in a few months reduced to three working members, Mrs. Atkinson, Mrs. Boyd and Miss Rombauer. Realizing that it must enlist the support of the press they sent out letters to a long list of the State editors and favorable replies were received from twenty-six, who promised to give a weekly column in their papers for suffrage news and propaganda. All the libraries were written to and a number of them induced to procure the four large volumes of the History of Woman Suf- frage, generously offered by the National Association. The librarians, who were often women, were asked to keep on hand a supply of suffrage literature. The St. Louis public library, at the suggestion of the board, made a special exhibit of this literature, much of which was new. In the center of the exhibit was a large picture of William T. Harris, former superintendent