l press department for
years were forwarded to college, town and State libraries and to
editors. How far and deep the influence of those _Journals_ reached is
beyond computation.

In the fall of 1910 the State association joined the Tennessee Equal
Suffrage Association in a booth at the Tri-State Fair in Memphis. An
interesting feature was the press exhibit, consisting of a width of
canvass many yards long on which had been pasted clippings from
Mississippi newspapers, suffrage argument and favorable comment. The
annual convention was held in Cleveland in 1911. Miss Gordon and Judge
Thomas spoke at the evening session. Editor C. E. Glasco gave an
earnest talk at a morning session. The department chairmen brought
encouraging reports of their work. A letter was read from Colonel Clay
Sharkey of Jackson, which later was published in leaflet form.

The State meeting was held at Flora in April, 1912. Mrs. Judith Hyams
Douglas, president of the Era Club of New Orleans, and Omar Garwood of
Colorado, secretary of the National Men's League for Woman Suffrage,
were the principal speakers. The president, Mrs. Somerville,
recommended that the various State organizations of women be invited
to unite with the suffrage association in forming a central committee
to secure such legislation as should be agreed upon by all. This was
afterwards accepted by the Federation of Women's Clubs and the United
Daughters of the Confederacy. Resolutions were passed regretting the
retirement from the presidency of Mrs. Somerville, to whose good
generalship during the past four years the success of the association
was in a large part due. Mrs. Lily Wilkinson Thompson was elected
president.

In response to the call to take part in the parade in Washington March
3, 1913, Mrs. Avery Harrell Thompson, temporarily residing there, was
put in charge and with her husband, Harmon L. Thompson, arranged for a
handsome float, on which Miss Fannie May Witherspoon, daughter of the
member of Congress, represented Mississippi. Mr. Gibbs, a
Mississippian, carried the purple and gold silk banner of the State
Suffrage Association and four other young Mississippians, Judge Allen
Thompson and his brother, Harmon, Walter and Edward Dent, marched
beside the float, preforming valiant volunteer police duty when it
became necessary. During this year the enrolled membership increased
four-fold. Quarterly reports, nearly a thousand, were printed for the
first time instead of