Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/648

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HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

632 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE hurriedly compared and consternation reigned among them. "Uncle" Jesse Baker of Granbury, of honored memory, intro- duced the resolution to submit an amendment to the electors. The Legislative Committee were inexperienced but they worked with such zeal that it received a vote in the House of 90 to 32. It was not considered by the Senate. Among those who worked with Miss Finnigan during the three months in Austin were Mrs. Minnie Fisher Cunningham, president of the Galveston Equal Suffrage Association ; Mrs. Tex Armstrong of the Dallas association; Mrs. J. O. Creighton of the Austin association ; Mrs. Ed. F. Harris and Mrs. J. H. W. Steele of Galveston ; Mrs. David Doom, Mrs. Robert Connerly, Mrs. L. E. Walker, Mrs. A. B. Wolfe and Mrs. R. H. Griffith, all of Austin; Mrs William H. Dunne of San Antonio; Mrs. Elizabeth Herndon Potter of Tyler; Mrs. W. E. Spell of Waco. On Sunday afternoon, March 28, Dr. Shaw, the guest of Miss Brackenridge, delivered a great speech in Beethoven Hall under the auspices of the San Antonio Equal Franchise Society, accom- panied on the stage by its president, Mrs. Dan Leary; J. 11. Kirkpatrick, president of the Men's Suffrage League, the Rev. George H. Badger and Miss Marie B. Fenwick, a veteran suffra- gist. Many converts were made. In April the State convention met in Galveston and reports showed twenty-one auxiliaries. Mrs. Cunningham was elected president, alert, enthusiastic and bringing to the cause the valuable experience of work in it for the past two years. The president and new board prosecuted the work so vigorously that during the year there was a 400 per cent, increase in organizations. Miss Kate Hunter, president of the Palestine league, gave her entire summer vacation to field work. In May, 1916, the State convention met in Dallas, re-elected Mrs. Cunningham to the presidency and instructed the executive committee to ask for suffrage planks in State and National Democratic platforms. The name was changed from Woman Suffrage to Equal Suffrage Association and the Senatorial district plan of organization was adopted, following the lines of the Democratic party. When the State Democratic convention met in San Antonio this month to elect a national committeeman there were scores of women in the galleries proudly wearing their