Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/726

 710 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE At a State convention in Laramie Nov. 9-11, 1919, with Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, the national president, as guest of honor, a branch of the National League of Women Voters was organized, with Mrs. Cyrus Beard as State chairman. At Casper, Oct. 2, 1920, it was re-organized by Mrs. James Paige, regional director, with Mrs. C. W. Crouter as State chairman. RATIFICATION. Governor Robert D. Carey called a special ses- sion of the Legislature for Jan. 26, 1920, to ratify the Federal Suffrage Amendment. The vote was unanimous in each House, and, after it was finished and had received the Governor's signa- ture, Mrs. Theresa Jenkins of Cheyenne, a faithful supporter of woman suffrage in Wyoming for fifty years, thanked the members and the Governor for their action in behalf of the women of the State, the United States and the world. The decree that laws must be omitted for lack of space bars out the many statutes in the interests of women and children which are Wyoming's especial pride. The pioneer member of the Legislature was Mrs. Mary Godat Bellamy of Laramie, elected to the Lower House in 1911. She had been a teacher in the public schools of the city and county superintendent. She was very active in her duties and was instru- mental in having a number of excellent bills become laws. Among these were bills for an adequate appropriation to employ a State humane officer for child and animal protection ; to establish an industrial institution for male convicts twenty-five years old or under, as at that time 85 per cent, of those in the penitentiary were under twenty-one; an eight-hour day for women and children who worked in factories, laundries and industrial places ; a grant to the State University of a permanent annual revenue. She helped to kill a bill to repeal an existing law which prohibited liquor being sold in places that were not incorporated, as mining and lumber camps. Mrs. Bellamy said later: "While the men were courteous yet no woman must expect that when it comes to gaining a point a man is going to make an exception because his colleague is a woman." In the Legislature of 1913 two women Representatives had seats Mrs. Anna Miller of Laramie, a mother of six grown