Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/559

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

OREGON 543 publicity, in which she had had long experience. Miss Gordon had charge of parlor meetings in the cities and larger towns, reaching hundreds who could not have been induced to attend public rallies. Miss Laughlin appealed powerfully to the labor and fraternal organizations and conducted a series of meetings in their halls, at industrial plants and on the streets. Miss Black- well, assisted by the Misses Mary and Lucy Anthony, remained at the headquarters and supervised the sending out of literature. Dr. Shaw, while keeping her finger on the pulse of all the work, was speaking to great crowds constantly. The impetus given the cause by the national convention the previous summer and the activity of the national workers in the present campaign aroused the corrupt influences in politics and the upper and lower classes of anti -suffragists as never be- fore and they jointly employed Ferdinand Reed, an experienced politician, at a high salary, as manager of a skilfully organized effort to defeat the amendment. The Brewers' and Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association of Oregon sent out from Portland May 21 to the retail liquor dealers and druggists the following secret circular, printed on its official paper, headed with the names of thirteen breweries and nineteen wholesale liquor houses: Dear Sir: Two laws are to be voted on at the election June 4, which are of vital importance to every liquor merchant in Oregon without exception. The first is woman suffrage. The second is the amendment to the local option law. The members of this associa- tion have wnrked hard for a long time on both these matters . . . but. being few in number, they can not by themselves pass the local n amendment or defeat woman suffrage. That part of the work is up to the retailers. We write this letter earnestly to ask you to help. It will take 50,000 votes to defeat woman -ulTrage. It will take 50,000 votes to pass the amendment to the Inral option law. There iilers in ( )rcgon. That means ihat every retailer must himself bring in J5 votes on election day. Kvery retailer can get 25 mployees he has his grocer, his butcher, his landlord, his laundryman and every person lie does business with. If man in the business will do this we will win. We enclose j; ballot tickets, showing how the^e two laws will ir on the ballot and how to vote. If yon will personally tal the |K)lls (,n election day and pve each one a ticket to vote, please mail this p.-tal card back tO HI at once.