Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 5.djvu/706

 nessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Mrs. Elvira Downey, president of the Illinois Suffrage Association, presiding. There were three sessions daily with large audiences and the Woman's Journal said: "Every session was like a great study class with teachers and students, questions, answers and discussion. It was not an occasion for a display of oratory but a practical and business-like conference." All phases of the work for suffrage were considered and especially the management of campaigns, which were now frequent. The third day a meeting was held in Milwaukee, arranged by Miss Gwendolen Brown Willis. The great need and value of such an organization was clearly apparent and the Misissippi Valley Conference was organized with Mrs. Stewart president. There was no constitution or fixed rules, it was simply decided to hold a meeting the next year and a committee to arrange for it appointed: Mrs. Stewart, chairman; Miss Kate Gordon of Louisiana and Mrs. Maud C. Stockwell of Minnesota.

The second conference met in St. Louis April 2-4, 1913, in the Buckingham Hotel, at the Call of nineteen State presidents. Mrs. George Gellhorn, president of the Missouri association, had charge of the arrangements, with a corps of committee chairmen. Mrs. Stewart presided and the conference was welcomed by Mrs. David M. O'Neil. The three daily sessions were crowded with eager, interested women. At one evening mass meeting in the Sheldon Memorial Governor Joseph K. Folk made an address. Miss Harriet E. Grim of Illinois was elected president and Mrs. Gellhorn and Mrs. Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, president of the Alabama Suffrage Association, were appointed to assist her in arranging for the next conference.

The third conference took place in Des Moines, Iowa, March 29-31, 1914, in the Savery Hotel, with the presidents of twenty State Suffrage Associations among the delegates. It opened with a mass meeting on Sunday afternoon in Berchel Theater and an overflow meeting had to be held for the hundreds who could not gain admittance. Governor George W. Clark, Miss Jane Addams, Rabbi Mannheimer, Miss Dunlap and Mrs. Stewart were the speakers. In the morning and evening most of the pulpits in the city were filled by delegates. The conference