Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/67

CALIFORNIA 53 LEGISLATIVE AND CONVENTION ACTION. 1901. A bill for School suffrage was defeated. 1905. A resolution to submit a constitutional amendment was defeated in both Houses by large majorities. A bill legalizing prize fighting was passed the same day. 1906. A Suffrage State Central Committee of twenty-one competent workers was organized, Mrs. Lillian Harris Coffin, chairman, Mrs. Katharine Reed Balentine, secretary, and it con- tinued its activities in behalf of an amendment to the State con- stitution for the next five years. The plan was to secure its endorsement by all conventions and organizations and have it in- corporated in the platforms of the political parties and the Central Committee was divided into sub-committees with representatives in every part of the State. The Executive of this Central Com- mittee, Mrs. Mary S. Sperry, Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Blinn, Mrs. Helen Moore and Mrs. Coffin, were the delegates to the State Republican convention in Santa Cruz in 1906, which was com- pletely under the control of the "machine." It was at this con- vention that the "insurgent" sentiment began to crystallize into the "progressive" movement. Woman suffrage was not put in the platform. James G. Gillette, nominated for Governor, ap- proached the women and pledged himself, if elected, to do all he could to carry through the amendment. Later, at Sacramento, the Democratic convention, under the leadership of Thomas E. Hayden, Albert Johnson, Max Popper and John Sweeny, in- corporated the amendment in the platform. It was placed in the platform of the Labor party, Miss Maud Younger and Mrs. Francis S. Gibson assisting the Legislative Committee. 1907. The Legislature of this year was the last under the complete domination of the corrupt political forces. The graft prosecution in San Francisco was in full swing, the result of which was an awakened public conscience. Every legislator had been interviewed and the San Francisco delegation was pledged in favor of the- suffrage amendment. It was introduced by Senator Leroy Wright of San Diego and in the House of Grove I.. Johnson of Sacramento the first week of the session. Mrs. Coffin. Mrs. Moore and Thomas K. llaydcn, an attorney retained by the State association, were the lobby maintained in Sacra-