CHAPTER XXXVI.
OREGON.[1]
The advent of 1901 found the suffrage cause in Oregon almost becalmed upon a sea of indifference. With an ultra conservative population, defeats in five previous campaigns, the existence of bitter prejudices and an utter lack of cooperation among the suffragists themselves, the outlook was almost hopeless, except for the one outstanding fact that each failure had carried the women a little nearer their goal. An inactive State organization had been maintained for years and in 1901-1904 the officers were: President, Mrs. Abigail Scott Duniway; vice-president-atlarge, Dr. Annice Jeffreys; vice-president, Mrs. Ada Cornish Hertsche; corresponding secretary, Miss Frances Gotshall; recording secretary, Mrs. W. H. Games; treasurer, Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe. No regular conventions were held.
Mrs. Duniway, the mother of suffrage in Oregon, always advocated the “still hunt,” preferring to centralize and individualize the effort through prominent men and women rather than through a large and general organization. Shortly before her death in 1915, speaking of her work she said: "Occasionally I would gather a few women together in a suffrage society but on the whole I did not find my time thus spent at all profitable. Some traveling lecturer would often come along and after speaking before the little local band of a dozen members would receive the contents of the treasury, leaving the society to ravel out for lack of funds. These experiences led me to give up organizing suffrage societies, as I had learned that lecturing, writing serial stories and editorials and correspondence afforded a more rational means of spreading the light. . . . The only time for general, active organization is after a few devoted workers have succeeded
- ↑ The History is indebted for this chapter to Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, president of the State Federation of Clubs ten years; on the Child Labor Commission eighteen years and market inspector for Portland sixteen years.
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