Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/380

366 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE them their open opposition was helping the amendment, urged them to carry it on in secret and said she would return later and lay before them a plan of campaign. Afterwards when the Butte papers exposed this scheme the National Forum described the interview. Before the election the National Anti-Suffrage Asso- ciation sent its executive secretary, Miss Minnie Bronson, and Mrs. J. D. Oliphant of New Jersey to campaign against the amendment. They succeeded in forming only one society in the State and that was at Butte, with a branch in the little town of Chinook. The officers were Mrs. John Noyes, president; Mrs. Theodore Symons, secretary; Mrs. W. J. Chrystie, press chair- man; Mrs. David Nixon, active worker; Mrs. Oliphant chal- lenged Miss Rankin to a debate, which was held in the old audi- torium in Helena. At the meeting, which had been packed by the liquor interests, Mrs. Oliphant was noisily applauded and the confusion was appalling. Although the speakers travelled to remote districts up to the night before election in November, the instructions from head- quarters were to have loose ends gathered up by the opening of the State Fair September 25, at Helena. Headquarters were maintained a week at the fair and in the city and each day The Suffrage Daily was issued. The editors were Mrs. L. O. Ed- munds, Miss O'Neill, Mrs. M. E. McKay and Miss Belle Fligel- man, all newspaper women. The most picturesque and educative feature of the whole campaign and the greatest awakener was the enormous suffrage parade which took place one evening dur- ing the week. Thousands of men and women from all parts of the State marched, Dr. Anna Howard Shaw was at the head, and next, carrying banners, came Dr. Dean, the past president, and Miss Rankin, the present State chairman. A huge American flag was carried by women representing States having full suffrage; a yellow one for the States now having campaigns ; a large gray banner for the partial suffrage States and a black banner for the non-suffrage States. Each county and city in the State had its banner. The Men's League marched and there were as many men as women in the parade. During the entire campaign the Woman's Christian Temper- ance Union, one of the strongest organizations in the State, con-