Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/507

 NORTH CAROLINA 49! came auxiliary to the National Association. At this time, when it was far from popular to stand for this cause, Judge Walter Clark, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court; Gen. Julian S. Carr, Archibald Henderson, Wade Harris and E. K. Graham acted as Advisory Committee and gave freely of their time and money to help the new league. The first annual State convention was held in Charlotte, Nov. 9-10, 1914, Mrs. Henderson presiding. During this first year Mrs. Medill McCormick, chairman of the Congressional Com- mittee of the National Association, was of the greatest assistance in many ways. She sent an organizer, Miss Lavinia Engle, who, with Mrs. Henderson, distributed literature throughout the State and organized a number of branches. The State League recorded itself as opposed to "militancy" in any form and as desiring "to gain the vote by appeal to reason and fair play." The Charlotte Observer carried a four-page suffrage section advertising the convention. Keener interest throughout the State, together with the existence of fourteen leagues, represented the net result of this first year's work. The officers were re-elected except that Mrs. Palmer Jerman of Raleigh was made recording secretary and Miss Mary Shuford of Hickory corresponding secretary. Delegates appointed to the national convention at Nashville, Tenn., were: Misses Bynum, Liddell and Mary Henderson. The second annual convention met at the Battery Park Hotel, Asheville, Oct. 29, 1915. Mrs. Nellie Nugent Somerville of Mississippi, a vice-president of the National Association, gave an address. During the year Mrs. Desha Breckinridge of Ken- tucky, also a national vice-president, spoke several times in the State. Mrs. Henderson had sent a vigorous protest in the name of the league to Miss Alice Paul, chairman of the Congressional Union, against her coming into North Carolina to organize branches, saying that its policy was diametrically opposed to that of the State Suffrage League, whose arduous work of the past year would be undone. The outstanding feature of the y< work was tl 1 hearing i" the Legislature on the Act to Amend the Constitution so as to Give Woman Suffrage. In November, i<M4, the legislators bad been polled on the suffrage question. A few did not answer; fifteen were flatly opposed;