Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/343

 suffrage sentiment throughout the State. The Rev. George Whitfield, a venerable Baptist minister, came from the neighboring town of Clinton and conducted devotional exercises and gave a talk on woman's position from a Biblical standpoint. R. K. Jayne of Jackson, an early suffragist, also spoke. At this time dues-paying members were reported from seventeen towns. Mrs. Somerville was re-elected president.

The annual convention was held in Greenville in 1910. Dr. Shaw and Miss Ray Costello of England made addresses; Judge E. N. Thomas of Greenville presided at one of the evening meetings; John L. Hebron, a Delta planter and afterwards State Senator, made an earnest speech of endorsement. It was reported that hundreds of letters were written and the association had gained a hold in fifty places, ranging from rural neighborhoods and plantation settlements to the largest towns. Frederick Sullens, editor of the Jackson Daily News, had given space for a weekly suffrage column edited by Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. J. C. Greenley edited a similar column in the Greenville Democrat. Mrs. Madge Quin Fugler supplied five papers and Mrs. Montgomery two. Miss Ida Ward of Greenville wrote articles for the papers of that town and Mrs. Mohlenhoff edited a column in the Cleveland Enterprise. Among other papers publishing suffrage material were the McComb City Journal and the Enterprise and the Magnolia Gazette. From the press superintendent there had gone out 1,700 articles, ranging in length from a paragraph to a half page, many of them written by her, and they were given prominence in special editions. Ten copies of the Woman's Journal which came from the national press department for years were forwarded to college, town and State libraries and to editors. How far and deep the influence of those Journals reached is beyond computation.

In the fall of 1910 the State association joined the Tennessee Equal Suffrage Association in a booth at the Tri-State Fair in Memphis. An interesting feature was the press exhibit, consisting of a width of canvass many yards long on which had been pasted clippings from Mississippi newspapers, suffrage argument and favorable comment. The annual convention was held in Cleveland in 1911. Miss Gordon and Judge Thomas spoke