Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/606

59 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE the National American Suffrage Association ; Miss Jane Addams, its vice-president; Mrs. Catharine Waugh McCulloch, Mrs. Ella S. Stewart and Mrs. Florence Bennett Peterson, all of Chicago, and from many others. One of the best educational forces was the South Dakota Messenger, a weekly paper controlled and edited by the State organization. It had a wide circulation and was able to reach into the farthest corners of the State. Other papers clipped freely from its editorial and news columns. On November 3 the amendment received 39,605 ayes and 51,519 noes, lost by nearly 12,000. For the fifth time the men of South Dakota had denied their women the right of representa- tion in the government. The suffrage leaders were not in the least daunted or dis- couraged and a convention was very soon called at Huron to decide whether or not resubmission should be asked of the Legislature the next year and the unanimous decision was that it should be. The district plan was abandoned and county or- ganization adopted. A "budget" was prepared and each county assessed according to its population, which plan was generally successful. In January, 1915, the Legislative Committee, this time com- posed of Mrs. Pyle, Mrs. Etta Estey Boyce of Sioux Falls and Mrs. Paul Rewman of Deadwood, assisted by a number of Pierre suffragists for the Universal Franchise League and Dr. Mary Noyes Farr of Pierre and Miss Rose Bower for the W. C. T. U., once more climbed the steps of the Capitol to ask for another referendum. Once more the request was granted in the Senate by 29 to 15, in the House by 57 to 40 during the first two weeks of the session. A reception was given by the committee and Pierre suffragists to the members of the Legislature, the State officers and the ladies of their families in the ballroom of the St. George Hotel, said to have been a social event second only to the inaugural ball. Later in the session a bill to give women a vote for presidential electors, county and municipal officers, which could be granted by the Legislature itself, received 59 ayes and 40 noes in the House; 1 8 ayes and 24 noes in the Senate. During the summer of 1916 for the first time the women