Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/153

 accomplished a wonderful work. Public meetings addressed by prominent men and women were held daily; $1,200 were raised and 4,000 women were registered in a few weeks. The Executive Committee in 1920 again included women in the electorate and to this body of men is due the honor of being the first in Georgia to recognize the value of women in civic affairs.

In 1919 all the district school superintendents inaugurated a series of competitive debates on the question, Shall Georgia Grant Suffrage to the Women of the State? This created intense interest in every county and the Equal Suffrage Party found it difficult to supply the demand for literature from the hundreds of schools. The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce elected five women as members in recognition of their public service. In addressing the Landowners' Convention at Savannah in November Governor Hugh M. Dorsey said: "I hope that as Governor of Georgia I may be given the privilege of signing a bill giving women equal rights in this great commonwealth."

. In June, 1915, the Equal Suffrage Party made its first effort to sponsor a suffrage bill in the Legislature. It opened a booth in one of the corridors between the House and Senate chambers, supplied it with the best suffrage literature and put it in charge of a committee of women who worked faithfully to convert some of that wilful and reactionary group of politicians. It was a hopeless task. The first bill was introduced in the House by Mr. Wohlwender of Muscogee county and in the Senate by Senators Dobbs and Buchanan and referred to the Judiciary Committee, which granted a hearing. Representatives from all the suffrage associations were present and made speeches. Mrs. Walter D. Lamar and Miss Mildred Rutherford, head of the Lucy Cobb Institute of Athens, represented the Anti-Suffrage Association. Mrs. Lamar's arguments were based upon the theory that women did not have sufficient integrity to be trusted with the ballot; that long years ago when those of New Jersey had it it had to be taken from them because they were so dishonest in their use of it. She also said that women were universally the hardest taskmasters, requiring more work and paying less for it than men. Miss Rutherford begged the legislators to disregard the request of the few women desiring