Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/71

CALIFORNIA 57 Republican conventions now concentrated their strength on the Democratic. A progressive Legislature was nominated and a man for Governor who had sufficient courage to carry out a progressive program Hiram W. Johnson the women con- tributing to his success in not a few counties. The election was a Progressive victory and the chairman of the Republican State Central Committee called a meeting of its members and the members elect of the Legislature for 1911 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and appointed committees for assisting the legislators in carrying out the promises of the platform. A com- mittee of the leading legislators was appointed to see that a woman suffrage amendment to the constitution was submitted. 1911. The action taken in 1911 has been described. In 1915 the Legislature by unanimous vote of both Houses passed resolutions which said in part : Resolved, That so successful has been the operation and effect of granting political rights to women that it is generally conceded that, were the question to be again voted on by the people of this State, it would be reendorsed by an overwhelming majority; and be it further Resolved, That the adoption of woman suffrage by California is one of the important factors contributing to the marked political, social and industrial advancement made by our people in recent years. In 1917 in the midst of the war, when the Federal Suffrage Amendment was hanging in the balance in Congress, a petition from the State Federation of Women's Clubs was sent to the Legislature through Mrs. Alfred Bartlett of Los Angeles that it would memorialize Congress on the subject. Without a dis- senting vote the following passed both Houses in just twelve minutes: "Whereas, the women of the United States are being railed upon to share the burdens and sacrifices of the present national crisis and they are patriotically responding to that call, be it Resolved by the Senate of California with the Assembly concurring that the denial of the right of women to vote on equal terms with men is an injustice and we do urge upon Congress the submission to the Legislatures of the States for their ratification MI amendment to the U. S. Constitution -ranting women the riidit to vote." KAMI; Governor William D. Stephens called the