Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/388

374 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE with the exception of that of Omaha. Throughout the year task was continued of obtaining the signatures in the vari< counties, all done by volunteers. It was necessary at the sai time to create public sentiment and organize clubs in prepara- tion for the campaign for the submission of the amendment which would follow. In Omaha Mrs. Sunderland soon turned the district organization over to Mrs. James Richardson and took the position of city chairman. Meetings were held with prominent local speakers. On November 5 Chancellor Avery of the State University spoke for woman suffrage before the State Teachers' Association in the First Methodist Church. Two days later Dr. Shaw addressed it in the auditorium. She spoke at noon before the Commercial Club, a distinction given by it to a woman for the first time. On Nov. 6, 7, the State conven- tion was held in Lincoln and Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby, formerly of Beatrice, was made honorary president. In January, 1914, a Men's Suffrage League was formed in Omaha with E. H. Geneau, T. E. Brady, Henry Olerichs and James Richardson promoting it. On February 2 a thorough canvass of the business part of the city was begun by the women. Mrs. Lindsey thus described it: With a blizzard raging and the thermometer at 5 degrees below zero women stood in drug stores and groceries, and visited office buildings, factories and shops, wherever permission could be ob- tained, soliciting signatures for six consecutive days. Mrs. C. S. Stebbins, nearly seventy years of age, stood at the street car barns and filled several petitions and Mrs. Isaac Conner, a suffrage worker since 1868, made a similar record. Mrs. W. P. Harford and Mrs. George Tilden arranged to have people standing at the church doors for names at the close of service on Sunday. Many ministers offered their churches to the committee and spoke of the matter from their pulpits. Of all the Protestant churches, only the Episcopal refused the committee's request, Dean James A. Tancock of Trinity Cathe- dral and the Rev. T. J. Mackay of All Saints declining. Petitions were kept open at the Daily News office and other offices and places of business. Fifteen of the leading drug stores offered space to the women under the direction of Mrs. E. S. Rood, and it was decided to continue the intensive campaign until the I2th, when the county chairman had called a meeting at the city hall to celebrate Lincoln's birthday, to hear Medill McCormick of Chicago and to announce results. A large crowd of petition workers, sympathizers and mem- bers of the Men's League was present. While the goal for Douglas