obtain the ballot by
State enactment he would favor Federal action.' Among those who
declared for ratification were J. J. Bailey, Paul Capdeville, F. R.
Grace, T. R. Harris, A. V. Coco, Semmes Walmsley, Rufus E. Foster,
Howell Morgan, Percy Saint, E. N. Stafford, Phanor Breazeale,
Donaldson Caffery and many other men of affairs. The New Orleans
_Item_ had always advocated woman suffrage and the Federal Amendment
especially; the _Times-Picayune_ now approved ratification, as did
nearly all the papers in the State. The Orleans Democratic
Association, which had put Governor Parker in office, passed a
resolution endorsing it. The State Central Committee chairman, Frank
J. Looney, and the National Democratic Committeeman, Arsene Pujo, were
in favor, and North Louisiana was almost solid for it. The opposition
was chiefly in New Orleans, where certain elements under ward-boss
leadership were opposed to woman suffrage in any form.

Mrs. Holmes had a number of interviews with Governor-elect Parker
alone, with other women and with Marshall Ballard, editor of the
_Item_, one of his valued supporters. She was always led to believe
that he would help when the time for it came, although some of his
strongest adherents were opposed to ratification. It was deemed best
to make the fight along non-partisan lines, and so he was asked if it
would be wiser to have two of his own supporters take charge of it or
to have one who had opposed him in the primary campaign. He advised
the latter course and Norris C. Williamson of East Carroll parish, his
opponent, was selected to introduce the bill in the Senate, and S. O.
Shattuck of Calcasieu, a supporter and the introducer of the first
woman suffrage bill in the Legislature in the Lower House. The day
Mayor Martin Behrman came out for ratification, Mr. Parker said to
Mrs. Holmes: "I have always been for woman suffrage any way it could
be obtained and I have never understood a suffragist's taking any
other stand."

Early in March Governor-elect Parker told a group of suffragists that
the women should get together on a program for the Legislature if they
wished to be successful. Acting on this suggestion the Party publicly
invited all suffrage organizations to come together and form a Joint
Ratification Committee. Men and women from all parts of the State
attended this meeting on April 7 and one of the speakers, Charles
Rosen, pledged Parker to ratification, while Marshall Ballard vouched
for