Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/410

HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE road. By automobile, wagon, on horseback, climbing up to mining camps on foot, the canvassers went; making a house-to- house canvass of ranches many miles apart; travelling 150 miles over the desert all day to speak to the "camp," which was always assembled on the street in front of the largest and best lighted saloon, on their arrival at dusk. Many were the courtesies they received from shirt-sleeved miners and cowboys. They were also greatly assisted by the suffrage association's local chairmen, who would hastily secure substitutes to cook for their "hay crews" and drive miles to arrange meetings. They always tried to reach a settlement or hospitable ranch house for the night. Where this was not possible they slept on blankets in hay fields or on the ground in the heart of the desert itself. The trip covered 3,000 miles. Meanwhile at State headquarters in Reno leaflets that had been carefully written as appeals to "give Nevada women a square deal" were addressed to voters' lists as they registered for the approaching election, under the direction of the society's treas- urer, Mrs. Bessie Eichelberger. A State labor conference representing 6,000 members en- dorsed the amendment and every labor union that took a vote on it. The official endorsements of the Democratic, Progressive and Socialist parties were obtained. Individual Republicans sup- ported it but the party refused its approval and the leading Re- publican newspaper, the Reno Evening Gazette, tinder the orders of George Wingfield, multi-millionaire, with other newspapers he controlled, bitterly fought the amendment to the last. Only one or two newspapers, notably the Nevada State Journal, ac- tively supported it but many published campaign news. Reno papers contained over 200 columns of suffrage matter. Fremont Older, editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, gave to State head- quarters the valuable services and paid the expenses of Miss Bessie Beatty, a member of its staff, to direct the State-wide press campaign of news and advertisements planned for Septem- ber and October. With the assistance of President Stubbs and in spite of the opposition of Regent Charles B. Henderson, a College Equal Suffrage League was formed at the State Uni- versity, under the leadership of Miss Clara Smith, and a suffrage