1920. Several days before it met the
chairman of the Republican State Committee, Joseph P. Burlingame, made
the announcement that by a suspension of the rules and contrary to
every precedent ratification would be accomplished on the first day.
The longed-for day, January 6, dawned clear and cold. Women thronged
the Capitol and filled the galleries of the House, except the section
which was occupied by the Governor's party, who had come to witness
the final scene in a fifty years' drama. After summoning the Senate
to meet with the House in Grand Committee, the Governor read his
annual message in which he recommended immediate ratification of the
amendment, "as an act of justice long delayed." The resolution was at
once presented and the floor leaders of both parties, William R.
Fortin of Pawtucket, Republican, and William S. Flynn of Providence,
Democrat, spoke in favor. It was passed on roll call by 89 ayes, 3
noes--Speaker Arthur P. Sumner of Providence, William H. Thayer of
Bristol and Albert R. Zurlinden of Lincoln. A rush was made by the
audience across the corridors to the Senate Chamber, where action was
even more rapid. Lieutenant Governor Emery J. San Souci, a friend of
woman suffrage, was in the chair and within a few moments, with no
speeches, the resolution was passed by viva voce vote with but one
dissenting voice, that of John H. McCabe of Burrillville. The
following day it was signed by Governor Beeckman, not that this was
necessary but he wished to give it his approval.

The great event was celebrated in the evening by a brilliant banquet
given by the Providence League of Women Voters at which the work of
the pioneers was especially featured. A handsome dinner given by the
Woman Suffrage Party took place at which the Governor and other public
officials spoke on the great victory. Miss Jeannette Rankin, the first
woman member of Congress, was a speaker.[161]

On May 17, 1920, the Rhode Island Equal Suffrage Association concluded
its work and merged into the State League of Women Voters, Miss Mary
B. Anthony, chairman. Then a procession of women marched through the
streets of Providence carrying the records of the organization for
fifty years, which were deposited in the archives of the State House
with impressive ceremony.

* * * * *

Among the nerve centers of suffrage activity in Rhode Island the
Newport County Woman Suffrage League had a definite place from its
found