“Suffragists Join to Canvass State Part 1,”Oregonian, March 03, 1912, 2:7.
-Transcription
SUFFRAGISTS JOIN TO CANVASS STATE
Five Portland Organizations Form Central Committee to Manage Campaign.
COUNTIES TO BE INVADED
Special Trains Will Carry Speakers to All Parts of Oregon and Rallies in Cities and Town Are to Be Gala Events.
A co-operative association of the five principal societies in the city organized in the interest of women’s suffrage, was formed yesterday afternoon at a meeting held in the quarters of the Portland Women’s Club campaign committee, on the fifth floor of the Rothchild building. A central committee composed of three representatives from each of the five societies was constituted and will direct the work of the organizations in a state-wide campaign. A unified and harmonious front will thus be presented in the campaign for gaining the ballot for women in Oregon at the general election next November.
The clubs represented are the Multnomah County branch of the State Equal Suffrage Association, the Portland Equal Suffrage Association, the Portland branch of the National College Equal Suffrage League, which was recently organized here, the Men’s Equal Suffrage Club, and the Portland Women’s Club. The central committee will be known as the Equal Suffrage Advisory Committee. The quarters of the Portland Women’s Club campaign committee, in the Rothchild building, will be a general headquarters for the central committee, although the individual organizations will also have their own headquarters. The headquarters, under the direction of the new committee, will be a clearing house for all of the activities of the Portland organizations. By organizing in this manner a broader and clearer view of the field will be obtained, and all the work will be directed systematically and economically.
Leaders of Societies Present.
The following representatives of the different societies were present: Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, president of the Portland Equal Suffrage League; W. M. Davis, president of the men’s organization; Mrs. Henry Waldo Coe, president of the Portland branch of the National College Equal Suffrage League; Mrs. A. C. Newall, representing Abigail Scott Duniway, president of the State Equal Suffrage League, and Mrs. Sarah Evans, chairman, and Mrs. Frederick Eggert and Mrs. Dr. Esther C. Pohl, members of the Portland Women’s Club campaign committee. Mrs. Duniway was ill and unable to leave her home and sent Mrs. Newall as her representative, with greetings and good wishes and a letter, which was read to the committee.
It was arranged at the meeting that the forum, established several weeks ago under the auspices of the Portland Woman’s Club, should hereafter be conducted under the auspices of the central committee and that the meetings would be held weekly, instead of bi-weekly as heretofore. The meetings will be held in the auditorium of the Olds, Wortman, & King store, as already arranged. Each of the five organizations will have charge of the forum programme for one week in consecutive order. It is believed that in this way much more interest will be aroused in the campaign and large meetings are looked for. The meeting next Saturday will be held under the auspices of the Woman’s Club.
Canvass of State to Be Made.
Another plan outlined yesterday was for carrying the fight into the country towns of the state in an aggressive and impressive manner. Special trains will be chartered for these occasions and each locality where a meeting is to be held will be thoroughly billed with large posters and placards to attract throngs from the nearby country districts.
Tags and pennants in yellow and black, the official colors of the suffragists, will be distributed throughout the towns in shop windows and wherever permission could be obtained to place them, and the dead walls and fences will be covered with flaring posters. Committees will be appointed in every one of the towns to be visited to arouse enthusiasm in the demonstration. The occasion will be known as “Suffrage day,” and efforts will be made to have these rallying days resemble holidays.
The special trains will carry a galaxy of equal suffrage speakers, including prominent men and women from throughout the country as well as from throughout the state. A brass band and singers will form parts of the complements of the suffrage invasions. Parades will be held in the towns on these occasions and the suffrage badges, colors and mottoes [sic] will be everywhere in evidence.
In the smaller places “Suffrage day” will be more in the nature of a large picnic. At the picnics and also at the meetings in the large towns arrangements will be made to provide dainty viands to all persons from the country coming to participate, on the theory that the way to reach a man is through his stomach.
Something unique in suffrage campaigns, an event that may do more than any other feature to attract attention and arouse inerest [sic] in the suffrage movement, will be a big statewide gathering to be held here during the Elks’ convention in July. Delegates from all parts of the state, representing both men’s and women’s societies, will be in attendance to exchange views and get together for a concentrated effort in November.