president; Mrs. L. F.
Selden, corresponding secretary and treasurer; Mrs. M. M. Betts,
recording secretary; Mrs. S. S. Deem, chairman of problems
affecting women or children.

Mrs. Allen served continuously until 1912. In 1908 the State
Federation of Labor not only endorsed woman suffrage but agreed to
petition members of the Legislature and Congress to work for it and
they loyally kept their pledge. This same year suffrage literature was
first distributed at the State Federation of Women's Clubs and Dr.
Shaw, then president of the National Association, spoke in Memphis.

In 1910 the first suffrage State petition work was begun in Memphis
and its Nineteenth Century Club and the Newman Circle of Knoxville
held parlor meetings and discussions. Knoxville formed a local league;
the women's clubs began to awaken and the State Federation appointed
its first legislative committee, with the object of having the laws
unfavorable to women changed. In 1911 thousands of pieces of
literature were distributed, press articles sent out and a resolution
to amend the State constitution by striking out the word "male" was
first presented to the Legislature. The movement did not gain much
impetus until the Nashville League was organized in the fall of this
year and Chattanooga and Morrison soon followed. On Jan. 10-12, 1912,
the association with its five virile infant leagues met in Nashville
and plans for state-wide organization began. Miss Sarah Barnwell
Elliott, an eminent writer, was unanimously chosen president. In
October, 1913, the State convention met in Morristown and eight
leagues answered the roll call.

The work in the Legislature naturally always fell heavily upon the
Nashville League and from 1913 to 1919 the lobby was composed
principally of its members. The first real effort to break down the
prejudice of the legislators was in 1913, when Miss Elliott and Mrs.
Guilford Dudley asked for an audience for Miss Laura Clay, president
of the Kentucky association, and Miss Mary Johnston of Virginia, the
novelist. This was granted and Miss Elliott was the first woman to
address the Legislature, although no bill was before it.

At a called meeting of the Executive Board, at Memphis in May, 1914,
the resignation of Miss Elliott was regretfully accepted and Mrs. L.
Crozier French succeeded her. At the State convention held October 29,
30 in Knoxville a division occurred and some of the delegates,
refusing to be head