Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/77

 participated actively in the suffrage campaigns of Kansas, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, and lectured as far south as Mississippi, finding much interest in Colorado's experiment. It was believed that the men's organizations, actively taking the stand for the enfranchisement of women, contributed substantially to the ultimate success of the movement. In 1915 and following years an obscure lawyer employed by certain vested interests in Colorado and elsewhere went into eastern States where suffrage amendments were pending and scattered false statements about the situation in this State. The newspapers of the East were flooded with denials by Colorado men, women and organizations and when they published these he filed suits for libel but never allowed one of them to come to trial.

Again and again the Legislature has given official testimony in favor of woman suffrage when it would be helpful. On Jan. 2, 1919, when the U. S. Senate was about to vote on submitting the Federal Amendment, Mrs. Hosmer, president of the State Association; Mrs. Anna M. Scott, first vice-president, and Mrs. Sarah K. Walling, a member of the board of directors, went before the Legislature at the opening of the session, asking for a memorial to the Senate urging favorable action. In less than an hour the rules had been suspended in both Houses and the following resolution passed unanimously:

Whereas, Colorado has long enjoyed the help and counsel of its women in all political matters of citizenship and by these years of experience demonstrated the benefit to be derived from equal suffrage; and whereas, there is now pending in the Senate of the United States a constitutional amendment providing for national woman suffrage; therefore be it

Resolved, that we urge the United States Senate to take up and submit this amendment at the earliest possible date in order that all the women of the nation may have the right of suffrage and the nation may have the benefit of their citizenship.

Both Democratic and Republican parties, and the Populist and Progressive parties when they existed, have stood for equal suffrage and unequivocally endorsed it in their platforms. The appointment of vice-chairwomen of the political State Committees is a foregone conclusion. During the memorable campaign of 1914, Mrs. Steele, wife of the late Chief Justice Robert W.