Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/312

 it was defeated in the House by 117 to 73, although the Speaker left the chair for the only time that session to argue in favor of it.

At the hearing on the submission of the constitutional amendment, Louis D. Brandeis, ex-Congressman Samuel L. Powers, Joseph Walker and Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard spoke in favor and letters were read from Samuel W. McCall, afterwards Republican Governor; Charles Sumner Bird, the Progressive leader, and Thomas W. Riley, an influential Democrat. For the first time since 1895 woman suffrage commanded a majority in the House, the vote standing ayes, 144, noes, 88, but this was not the necessary two-thirds and the Legislative Committee consented that it might be voted down in the Senate, provided the "straw" vote bill was defeated at the same time.

It now seemed practically certain that the amendment would pass the next Legislature. In the fall of 1913 the Boston Equal Suffrage Association defeated Walter R. Meins of the 21st Suffolk District; the Legislative Committee of the State Association defeated Representatives Butler of Lowell and Underhill of Somerville at the primaries, and Bliss of Malden and Greenwood, president of the Senate, at the election. This being the first time for many years that a Democrat had been returned from Greenwood's district, his defeat caused a sensation.

In 1914 the Progressive party, the State Federation of Labor, the Socialists and the State Suffrage Association all introduced suffrage measures. The Progressive and Democratic parties had planks in their platforms recommending the submission of the constitutional amendment to the voters and Governor Walsh was in favor of it. The suffragists were unable to get a plank in the Republican platform. For reasons of political expediency, Mrs. Crowley turned over the conduct of the hearing to John Weaver Sherman, representing the State Federation of Labor. There were speeches in favor by Guy A. Ham, chairman of the Resolutions Committee of the State Republican convention; Henry Sterling, representing the American Federation of Labor; Mrs. William Lloyd Garrison, Jr., Mrs. Pinkham and Mrs. Katherine Lent Stevenson, president of the W. C. T. U. Letters were read from ex-Governor Bates and Sherman K. Whipple, Republican and Democratic leaders. The Women's Political