Miss Mary Bulkley, Miss Charlotte
Rumbold and Mrs. William C. Fordyce of the St. Louis Equal Suffrage
League and Mrs. St. Clair Moss and Mrs. Rose Ingels of Columbia. A
letter had been sent to every legislator saying that all he was asked
to do was to help get the amendment before the voters. The resolution
was introduced by Representative Thomas J. Roney and Senator Anderson
Craig. It was referred to the House and Senate Committees on
Constitutional Amendment and a joint hearing was set for February 6.
A number of women from different parts of the State appeared before
these committees and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National
Suffrage Association, disarmed all prejudice. There was a unanimous
favorable report from the Senate Committee and only one adverse vote
in the House Committee. A week later the resolution was sent to
engrossment by both Houses with but five dissenting votes in the
Senate while in the House the "ayes" were so overwhelming that the
"noes" were not counted. The women went home feeling that the fight
was won but the last week of the session the resolution was taken off
the calendar, referred back to the committees and pigeon-holed.

The women then decided to resort to the newly created device of the
"initiative petition," by which the amendment could be submitted
without legislative action. Mrs. Walter McNab Miller was urged to take
charge of the work, the St. Louis Suffrage League agreeing to look
after the three most difficult congressional districts. She began the
latter part of August to canvass a State that has 114 counties, in
many of which there are no railroads and the other roads are almost
impassable. After six weeks of constant travel and hard work she
obtained only 1,000 names. The cooperation of Mrs. Nellie Burger,
president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the only woman's
organization in the State outside of the regular suffrage societies
which had endorsed suffrage, was then secured. The St. Louis and
Kansas City leagues took the most thickly populated districts and the
others were apportioned among little bands of suffragists, who, under
the leadership of Mrs. Miller, worked steadily for the next six
months. At last the required 14,000 signatures were obtained and
representatives from each district went to Jefferson City to present
the petitions to Secretary of State Cornelius Roach. He received them
in a most friendly manner, saying that he hoped this work, whi