Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/54

4O HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE was appointed, Mrs. Sarah Burger Stearns, a veteran suffragist, formerly of Minnesota, chairman. On December i a meeting was called by this committee and the league was re-organized; President, Mrs. Caroline M. Severance; vice-president, Mrs. Shelley Tolhurst; secretary, Mrs. Lenore C. Schultz. Monthly meetings were held for several years at the Woman's Club House, the money for the rent being given by Mr. Wilde, whose sym- pathy was strong for suffrage. The years from 1900 to 1910-11 were just years of "carrying on" and well the pioneers did their work. 1 They kept the fires burning and gradually all kinds of organizations of women became permeated with a belief in suf- frage for women and were ready for the final campaign. The work of John Hyde Braly in Southern California deserves a places by itself. A prosperous business man and public-spirited citizen, when the call came to assist the movement to enfranchise the women of the State he saw the necessity of interesting men of prominence. From early in January, 1910, he worked to secure the enrollment of one hundred names of the leading citi- zens of Los Angeles and Pasadena. Finally he arranged a mid- day banquet on the fifth of April and about fifty responded. Organization was perfected with a charter membership of one hundred influential men under the name of the Political Equality League of California and the following compact was signed: "We hereby associate ourselves together for the purpose of secur- ing political equality and suffrage without distinction on account of sex." The officers elected were : J. H. Braly, president ; Judge Waldo M. Yorke, first vice-president; Hulett Merritt, second; J. D. Bradford, secretary and treasurer. Enthusiastic speeches were made and Mr. Braly said that they were initiating this move- ment at the psychological time, for the progressive fever was in the California blood. It was a man's job to take a hand in the enfranchisement of women, since it was the men who must decide it by their votes. The league was pledged to work to induce the legislators to submit the amendment to the voters. Nine men were organized in a Board of Governors and it was decided to 1 Among the early workers, besides those already mentioned, were: Mrs. Charlotte LeMoyne Wills, Mrs. Mila Tupper Maynard, Mrs. Lulu Pyle Little, Mrs. Sarah Wilde Houser, Mrs. Josephine Marlett, Mrs. Alice E. Brodwell, Mrs. Mary A. Kenney, Mr*. Mary Alderman Garbutt, Mrs. Martha Salyer, Miss Margaret M. Fette, Mrs. Cora D. Lewis.