The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-29
MISS FRANCES GRIFFIN'S REPORT
AS President of the WOman's Suffrage Association Of Alabama---AS It VIII Soon Appear in the
 Official Organ of the Association.

thnt had possessed me and searched for authority and argument instead of going to church, believing that l was as wcrthily employed in trying to help the efforts to give one-half of human ity a chance to live. as when with those ancient gentle daIves, worKeo for human destruction. The consent or the Convention had not been formally obtained for me to speak before It in behalf of the women of the State. ana the champion of the ordinance, MT. Craig of Selma, had been called home. But General Sanford of Montgomery, one of the most brilliant orators anu erudite scholars in the South. repre- sentative of the highest school or gal lantry and deference for women put pronounced enemy to woman sur- frage had consented to act in MT. Craig's place as far as securing me the coprtesies of the Convention, and he kept his word to the letter
 I do not wish to furnish free adver- tisenent to the otherwise unimportant individuals who sailed into notice by blocking the wheels of progress as Tar as in them lay the power, therefore, ! shall avoid calling their names and | they must look for notorlety from some other source than any article of mine. However, in the day of our success, if one of them should present himself for
 our political support, I'll hunt up the copiec of The Advertiser to see how
 he stood during those days.
 | Early on Monday, as the Sundays papers had given warning that might | b. allowed to speak before the Conven- tion at IF o'clock of that day. the gall ler!es presented livelier appearance
 than at any time during the session. | White dresses and gay ribbons were | ,~t,A &f. a( while sonbre toilets O. older ladies
 showed that the interest was not con fined to any particular age. Long be- l fore the hour appointed, there was not standing room in the galleries.
 During the interval of waiting and | while business was progressing In the
 hall, one of the opposing members to whom have referred, sent up note 1 U the Chair for reading which the Secretary proclaimed aloud "The crowd in the gallery expecting to hear
 Hs thought his movement to adjourn
 which he intended to plump down at 1 the right moment would prove him to b,. very Jerrniah of prophecy. But we were not to die that way. The move to adjourn did not work.
 There was no little opposition, and when the question of allowing the wo-
 mans speech was put to the vote, there were a great many Nos" but on 6 demand for division there was only one man who stood up as voting "No. -" Afterwards when I asked of
 several gentleman who voted no. why | they did not also stand up, two of | them answered that they were afraid | or the ladies in the gallery. And yet, later on, they applauded a perfectly disrespectful speech of a member of | the Convention when the suffrage for oIne.l was put upon its final consider atiou. Maybe it was because there
 were not many ladies in the gallery | that afternoon.
 | When the point was carried, and the 0 e, dissenting member, who had been
 6 Confederate soldier and had faced a | battery waS added to the committee
 to escort the speaker into the hall, the
 Chairman of the Suffrage Committee
 asked to be allowed to withdraw with
 his Committee while the speech should go on, And they went out.
 l I have never had a more attentive
 audience and If I had spoken far be- | yond the limit of the thirty minutes
 which had accepted, I am sure l
 should have had respectful hearing. II The majority of the Convention are
 peers of the finest men the world holds
 today; but they have allowed them
 selves to cling to a few old feudal sen
 timents with a brass-band sort oi
 sound which they are 10th to part II from. During these days, there was
 much education of the public. General
 Morgan's arguments for woman suf-
 frage. the literature circulated by the National Suffrage Association, selec.
 tions from The Woman's Journal. ap.
 bearing in the daily papers, occasions II articles from other sources, all kept
 up wholesome friction and enabled
 this question to be discussed with the
 seriousness which its importance de- serves.
 The women of Huntsville. among the
 most brilliant in the State. sent In 8
 petition. which MT. Craig attempted tc
 read. when there was an effort of a few
 to suppress the reading. but when he
 asserted that there could be no reason
 to insult the women of Alabama. ks