Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/565

 OREGON 549 States. It was a most difficult task to gather up the broken threads of so many organizations and again rouse them to enthu- siasm. Dr. Lovejoy, however, at the earnest request of Dr. Shaw, sent out a general call for a conference in March, 1915. At this meeting the State Suffrage Alliance was formed with Mrs. William Ogburn as first president. Those who followed her in the office were: Mrs. Thomas Burk, Mrs. Kelley Rees, Mrs. Elliott Corbett and Mrs. C. B. Simmons. It gave its assist- ance to the unenfranchised States and was ready to respond to any call from the national president. RATIFICATION. The Alliance was largely instrumental in hav- ing a special session of the Legislature called to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment. This was done by unanimous vote in the House January 12 and in the Senate January 13, 1920, and Gov- ernor Oswald West affixed his signature on the I4th. The reso- lution was introduced in the lower House by Mrs. Alexander Thompson, a member. On March 6, 1920, at a called meeting the women organized a League of Women Voters and Mrs. Charles E. Curry was elected chairman. The Oregon chapter on suffrage was closed on Aug. 28, 1920. At noon of that day, while nearly 300 women stood at attention around the banquet table at the Benson Hotel in Portland, every bell and whistle in the city sounded forth the glad refrain of liberty and righteousness, universal suffrage for women, pro- claimed by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby. The Mayor of 'and, < leorge L. Baker, was there to rejoice with them. Old women who had stood in the battle-front for years were there to tell of the hard struggles they had passed through for the franchise and young women were there to promise that they would keep the faith and honor the inheritance that had conic to them. The jubilee closed with the singing of a Hymn of Thanksgiving written for this meeting by Mrs. Helen Ekin Star- rett, the only woman living who had attended the first and last conventions of the National Suffrage Association 1869-1920.