Stephens and Miss Mary
Barber were sent into the most hostile part of the State and worked
through the heat and dust of almost the entire summer. They spoke from
boxes and wagons; in little dark school houses with only one smoky
kerosene lamp, making it impossible to read their notes or see the
audience; before large, unsympathetic crowds at open air meetings. It
was an experience that tested endurance and loyalty almost to the
breaking point.

The Socialists were always helpful but they were intensely disliked
and sometimes their friendship only made the way more difficult. The
labor unions were unusually helpful and never antagonistic. Toward the
last of the campaign the secretary of the State Federation of Labor,
J. Luther Langston, with Miss Gordon made a two-weeks' speaking tour
through the State. The vote was taken Nov. 8, 1910, and was announced
as ayes, 88,808; noes, 128,928; lost by 40,120. While the
disappointment was intense yet as an education this campaign could not
be overestimated.[147]

There was still a desire to keep the organization alive and be ready
for the next opportunity. In 1911 Mrs. Biggers declined to stand again
for the presidency, after serving seven years, and Dr. Ruth A. Gay,
with a full board, was elected at the annual convention, Mrs. Biggers
taking the office of treasurer. At the State meeting of 1912 Mrs.
Mattie Flick, Miss Jessie Nourse and Mrs. Mattie Cloud were added to
the board. Dr. Gay held the presidency until 1913, when Mrs. Cora B.
Gotchy was elected. The State association became a member of the
Southern Women's Conference. No further effort was made with the
Legislature but the Republican party put a woman suffrage plank in its
State platform and the Progressive party took steps toward another
initiative petition, Mrs. Gotchy assisting, but it did not meet with
support. Mrs. Feuquay was selected for president in 1914 and helped a
resolution for an amendment introduced in the Legislature by the
Socialist Representatives McLemore and Pritchett, which did not come
out of committee.

In 1915 Mrs. Adelia C. Stephens was elected president. The
vice-president, Miss Mary Crangle, in the northeastern part of the
State, and the recording secretary, Mrs. Frances A. Agnew, in the
southwestern part, did active personal work to keep up the interest.
The Democratic Secretary of State, J. L. Lyon, made strenuous
individual effort to start an initiative petition, which was not
successfu