duce the deficit, it sent money for the
salary of one organizer and expenses of another beside $1,000 in cash.
Later the Leslie Suffrage Commission paid a bill of $540 to the
Publishing Company for literature ordered from June to November by the
State and $2,000 in cash which cleared up the deficit. According to
the State report the campaign cost the State organization about
$9,000. It cost the National Association and Leslie Commission over
$17,000.

The vote on November 7 was 63,540 in favor; 161,607 against; opposing
majority of 98,000, the largest ever given against woman suffrage.
Only two out of the fifty-five counties carried, Brooke and Hancock,
industrial districts situated in the extreme northern part of the
State. Brooke county had the lowest per cent. of illiteracy--two per
cent. while it was eight and three-tenths per cent. in the State at
large. The "wet" vote of Wheeling, Huntington and Charleston proved a
decisive factor in defeating the amendment. Another element working
toward the suffrage defeat was the use made by the opposition of the
negro question. They told the negroes that the white women would take
the vote away from them and also establish a "Jim-Crow" system and
they told the white women that the negro women outnumbered them and
would get the balance of power. There is a large colored vote in the
State. A really big campaign was conducted and while the size of the
opposition vote was appalling, one must consider that it was the first
attempt. The election methods in some places were reprehensible.

The State convention was held at Fairmont, Nov. 20, 1917, and there
was a determination to hold together for future effort. In 1918 there
was no convention, the women being absorbed in war work. By 1919
another great struggle was ahead, as it was evident that the Federal
Suffrage Amendment would soon be sent to the Legislatures by Congress.

Following the plan of the National Association Mrs. Nettie Rogers
Shuler, national corresponding secretary and chairman of organization,
went to Charleston on Jan. 7, 1919, to meet the State board to discuss
plans for ratification. The officers present were Mrs. Ruhl,
president; Mrs. Yost, member of the National Executive Committee, and
Mrs. Edward S. Romine of Wheeling, chairman of the Congressional
Committee. They stated that there was little organization, no funds
and that help must be given by the National Association. Mrs. Shuler
remained two weeks and