l. Suffrage resolutions were introduced by legislators
independently in the session of 1915 and the special session of 1916.
Luther Harrison and Charles F. Barrett, now Adjutant General, were
helpful friends in the Legislature. Mrs. Stephens was continued as
president through 1916 and 1917.[148] In 1916 the resolution for a
suffrage amendment passed the House by a vote of 62 to 15 but was
adversely reported by the Senate Committee.

Since 1910 Mrs. Woodworth had kept the question of woman suffrage
continually before the State Federation of Women's Clubs and in all
organizations of women there was an increasing interest in
legislation, especially for the benefit of women and children, and
they were seeing the necessity of the ballot as a means of attaining
it. Meanwhile most of the States west of the Mississippi River had
enfranchised their women and for months before the Legislature
convened in 1917 letters and telegrams came in announcing that former
foes had become friends, many of them offering to help the cause.
Woman suffrage was the first subject discussed when the Legislature
convened. The resolution to submit an amendment was championed in the
Senate by Senators Fred Tucker of Ardmore, John Golobie of Guthrie,
Walter Ferguson of Cherokee and many others. In the House among the
most earnest supporters were Paul Nesbitt of McAlester and Bert C.
Hodges of Okmulgee. The vote in the Senate February 2 was unanimous
and in the House March 17 was 75 ayes, 12 noes.

Women over the State watched anxiously the action of the Legislature
and many were in attendance. Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Frank Mulkey of
Oklahoma City and Mrs. Robert Ray of Lawton were especially active but
the chief credit belongs to Mrs. Frank B. Lucas, legislative
representative of the Federation of Women's Clubs, with wide
experience in legislative procedure. Mrs. Woodworth and Mrs. Lucas had
acted as committee for the State suffrage association, which now
merged with the campaign committee.

The campaign was made particularly difficult by the fact that Governor
Robert L. Williams, Attorney General S. P. Freeling and the chairman
of the State Election Board, W. C. McAlester, all Democrats, were
avowed and active anti-suffragists, notwithstanding the party had
declared in State convention in favor of the amendment. Encouraged by
eastern women an Anti-Suffrage Committee was formed with Mrs. T. H.
Sturgeon chairman and Miss Maybelle Stuard press chairman an