eadquarters during the winter, followed by addresses
on current topics. The association was especially indebted to Mrs.
Ballou, Mrs. Edward M. Harris and Miss Sarah J. Eddy for the
hospitality of their homes that combined on many occasions social
pleasure with excellent opportunity to present the suffrage cause.

On February 17, 1916, a luncheon and conference at the Narragansett
Hotel were held in honor of Mrs. Catt, now national president. A mass
meeting was held in March in Sayles Hall, where Mrs. Glendower Evans
of Boston and Professor Louis J. Johnston of Harvard spoke in the
interest of the Federal Amendment. In April a "suffrage shop" was
opened in Providence in charge of Miss Mary B. Anthony, which proved
an active center of propaganda. Rhode Island was represented in the
suffrage parades during the national political conventions in Chicago
and St. Louis in 1916 by Miss Yates. On election night in November a
public reception was held at suffrage headquarters, where a private
wire had been installed to give the returns and large numbers were
present.

In 1917 Miss Yates conducted a suffrage school weekly at headquarters
during February and March. The major activities of the year were given
to legislative work. The granting of Presidential suffrage to women by
the Legislature was celebrated at the annual meeting, at which
Governor R. Livingston Beeckman, representatives of the political
parties of the State and Mrs. Nettie Rogers Shuler, national
corresponding secretary, were the principal speakers. An invitation
was accepted from Thomas W. Bicknell, one of the staunchest
suffragists, to unite with the Citizens' Historical Association, of
which he was president, in a joint celebration of the Declaration of
Independence by Rhode Island on May 4, 1776, and the passage of the
Presidential suffrage bill in April, 1917, and Miss Yates was chosen
as speaker for the State association. Miss Elizabeth M. Barr was
elected treasurer in 1917 and served until 1920. Miss Barr's
predecessors were Miss Mary K. Wood, Mrs. Jewett, Mrs. Ballou, Mrs.
Helen N. B. Janes, Mrs. Porter, Mrs. Cross, and Mrs. George W. Parks.

During the winter of 1918, a civics course was conducted by Miss
Anthony covering local and national government, Mayor Joseph H. Gainer
of Providence and other city officers speaking in the course. Miss
Anthony was elected State president at the annual meeting in June and
brought to the office experience in public