, Mrs. W.
G. Whipple, Mrs. A. Marinana. The intensely interested crowd stood two
hours and a half earnestly listening to these leading citizens asking
the right of suffrage for Arkansas women.

It had been the custom to disband during the summer months but the
summer of 1914 the Political Equality League opened a class for the
purpose of studying all the questions of the day and learning
something about speaking extemporaneously. In response to a call from
the president, Little Rock and Hot Springs sent representatives to a
conference held in the former city for the purpose of devising ways
and means of forming a State association. An organization committee
was formed of the following: Mrs. Ellington, Miss Fletcher, Miss Mary
House, Mrs. Rose, Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Jennings, all of Little Rock; Miss
Adele Johnson of Hot Springs. In October the State Woman Suffrage
Association was formed in Little Rock at Hotel Marion, with six
leagues represented by the following presidents: Hot Springs, Miss
Mary Spargo; Pine Bluff, Mrs. L. K. Land; Augusta, Mrs. Rufus
Fitzhugh; Malvern, Mrs. Mary Jackson; Hardy, Mrs. S. A. Turner;
Fayetteville, Mrs. LeRoy Palmer. The officers elected were, President,
Mrs. Ellington; first vice-president, Mrs. Fuller, Magazine; second,
Mrs. N. F. Drake, Fayetteville; corresponding secretary, Mrs. P. J.
Henry, Hot Springs; recording secretary, Mrs. Cunningham, Little Rock;
treasurer, Mrs. Cotnam, Little Rock.

In October, 1915, the first annual meeting took place in Little Rock,
eleven counties being represented, and this board was re-elected. The
principal business of this convention was to lay plans for the
legislative work early in the following year.

In October, 1916, the second annual convention was held in Pine Bluff,
its principal work being to devise ways and means of raising money for
continuing the organization of the State. Mrs. Cotman presented a
feasible plan for raising money which was accepted by the convention.
New officers elected were second vice-president, Mrs. J. D. Head,
Texarkana; third vice-president, Mrs. J. H. Reynolds, Conway;
corresponding secretary, Mrs. Maud O. Clemmons; recording secretary,
Mrs. G. D. Henderson, both of Little Rock. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
president of the National American Suffrage Association, had come to
Little Rock in April and spoken most acceptably to a large audience.
She held a conference with the State officers and later the
association financed