Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/270

 Harry Paire, the Republican floor leader, and referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendments. The hearing was held in the House of Delegates at Annapolis on February 24 before the committee and an audience that taxed the chamber’s capacity. Miss Maddox presided and introduced the speakers— Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Suffrage Association; the Rev. John Roach Straton, the Rev. Peter Ainslie, Attorney John Grill, Dr. Flora Pollack, Mrs. Mary Badders Holton, Mrs. Funck, the Rev. Olympia Brown of Wisconsin, Dr. J. William Funck and Miss Belle Kearney of Mississippi. An evening meeting also was held in the same place in the interest of the amendment. On March 24 Carville D. Benson of Baltimore county moved to lay it on the table which was done by a vote of 61 ayes, 18 noes. No action was taken by the Senate.

1912. All the suffrage societies united in asking for the submission of a State amendment for full suffrage. Their best speakers appeared before the committees. A petition was presented to both Houses, signed by 30,000 voters, but it polled only 22 affirmative votes in the House. Soon after a limited suffrage bill, sponsored by the Equal Suffrage League, failed by a vote of 16 noes, 9 ayes in the Senate.

1914. The amendment resolution was introduced in the House by Charles H. McNab of Harford county and in the Senate by William Holmead of Prince George county. It was supported by all the suffrage societies, and ably advocated but lost by 34 ayes, 60 noes in the House and defeated in the Senate. A resolution introduced in the Senate asking for the full suffrage for women with an educational and property qualification, endorsed only by the Equal Suffrage League, failed to get a hearing. One in the Senate requiring a literacy test only was not reported.

1916. The constitutional amendment for full suffrage was introduced in the House by Lloyd Wilkinson (Democrat) of Baltimore and in the Senate by Sydney Mudd (Republican) of Charles county and strongly supported. House vote was 36 ayes, 64 noes. The Senate committee reported favorably and the vote stood 17 ayes, 7 noes, William F. Chesley the only Republican