Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/127

 

With the removal from the State of Mrs. Ella C. Chamberlain in 1897 and no one found to take the leadership, the cause of woman suffrage, which was represented only by the one society at her home in Tampa, languished for years. In 1907 John Schnarr, a prominent business man of Orlando, circulated a petition to Congress for a Federal Suffrage Amendment which was sent down by the National Association and obtained numerous signatures. It is interesting to note that, from the beginning of the suffrage movement in Florida, men as well as women have been its active supporters.

As the years passed and the movement waxed strong throughout the country and important victories were won, the women of Florida imbibed the spirit of their day and generation. It became a frequent topic of discussion and women in various places began to realize the need of organization. On June 15, 1912, the Equal Franchise League was organized at Jacksonville in the home of Mrs. Herbert Anderson by herself and Mrs. Katherine Livingstone Eagan, with about thirty ladies present. Monthly meetings were held in a room in a large new office building given them for headquarters by the owners and forty-five members were enrolled. Mrs. Eagan, the president, soon went to Paris and her duties fell upon the vice-president, Mrs. Roselle C. Cooley; the secretary, Miss Frances Anderson, and the other officers. In the autumn two leading suffragists, who were attending the National Child Labor Convention, were invited to address the League, but neither the Board of Trade nor the Woman's Club would rent its auditorium for a suffrage meeting, so they had to open a door between their headquarters and an adjoining room and a large audience was present. The