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^ 55 Angeles, until they moved into a new house in 1897. Jessie Anthony became wellknown in Los Angeles as a clubwoman, an officer of a social settlement, and most of all as a woman suffragist. (Anthony, Anthony Genealogy, 198–99; Brief Account of Joseph Anthony, Sr., typescript, MNS-S; Caroline Williamson Montgomery, comp., Bibliography of College, Social University and Church Settlements, 5th ed. [Chicago, 1905], 18–19.) 2. Seven months later,one of those friends,Alice McComas,cast a more benign light on Southern California’s separatism. To a Northern California newspaper she wrote,“Although there was not in the beginning a positive plan to stand alone, work independently of all other suffragist organizations and pay all her own bills, such has come to pass.” When SBA arrived, campaign committees already existed in Los Angeles and surrounding counties. The National-American association dealt directly with the Joint Campaign Committee, based in San Francisco and led by Ellen Sargent; through that committee, the recognized state suffrage association was in an alliance with other organizations of women, but all its members resided in Northern California. Geography, regional ethnicities, and railroads stymied other reformers with statewide designs: the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union recognized northern and southern locals, for example. Whatever SBA counseled at this time, she could not remove suspicions, and in summer, when Mary Hay cracked the whip over the campaign, suffragists in Southern California resisted again. (San Francisco Call, 17 October 1896; History, 4:494–502; Gullett, Becoming Citizens, 96–97.) Y Excelsior Diary 1896, n.p., SBA Papers, DLC. ••••••••• 16 • Remarks by SBA to Meeting in Los Angeles [13 March 1896] There were about seventy-five ladies present yesterday afternoon in the parlor of the Nadeau hotel1 to welcome Miss Anthony on her flying trip through Los Angeles. Mrs. McComas2 presided in the chair, and stated the object of the meeting was to call women together to arouse additional interest in the coming constitutional campaign. Miss Anthony said she had invited the ladies to talk to them on the work of the pending amendment campaign. She spoke of the immense amount of work to be done, and how in former times when the subject of suffrage was suggested, speakers were told to talk to women, but now men are to 11–12 march 1896 56 & be converted; the rank and file do not attend suffrage meetings and cannot be reached in that way. Women have the training of children, the repairing of damages done society, philanthropy and all has been given women to do, much of which should be done by the state, because women are disfranchised and this work put into their hands instead of being done by the state lowers the standard of her ability. Miss Anthony gave graphic incidents of the difference between women and men in securing appropriations from the state to carry on philanthropic and reformatory work, the difference in the influence of the enfranchised and disfranchised sexes. What the women want to do is not to give or aid any party that does not declare their indorsement of this movement. In no state where the question has not been indorsed by political parties has a constitutional campaign been successful. Mrs. Routt3 of Colorado wrote the resolutions which Governor Routt presented to the state Republican convention of Colorado. Other parties followed, after them the county convention, then the editors took it up as a party measure, and women were employed as campaign speakers with the men, and the amendment passed by 7000 majority. In ten states it has been defeated because there was no plank in the platform. Politicians will not speak for it on the platform.4 Miss Anthony concluded by saying that she wanted California to be the second state to carry a constitutional amendment. The enfranchisement of women will not materially alter the balance of power, but will elevate party standards. At the conclusion of her remarks there was a warm hand clasp of welcome extended to the earnest speaker by all the ladies. Miss Anthony left last night for San Francisco. Y Los Angeles Herald, 14 March 1896. 1. At the corner of First and Spring streets, the four-story Nadeau Hotel was regarded as one of the finest in Los Angeles. 2. Alice Moore McComas (1850–1919) was a journalist and temperance union activist who ran the press committee for the amendment campaign in Southern California. In the southern counties, temperance and prohibition had strong political support, and the Woman...

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