his first convention. He presided at the opening session
and spoke at the evening meeting which filled the largest theater.
Mrs. DeVoe was elected president and was re-elected at each succeeding
convention. It was non-partisan and non-sectarian and its objects were
three-fold: 1. To educate women voters in the exercise of their
citizenship; 2. To secure legislation in equal suffrage States in the
interest of men and women, of children and the home; 3. To aid in the
further extension of woman suffrage. As new States gained suffrage
they joined the Council.

Before Mrs. DeVoe went to the National Suffrage Convention at St.
Louis in March, 1919, she was authorized by the Council to take
whatever steps were necessary to merge it in the National League of
Women Voters which was to be organized there. Mrs. Catt requested her
to complete the arrangements when she returned to Washington and act
as chairman until this was accomplished. On Jan. 6, 1920, the Council
became the State League of Women Voters. Mrs. Nelle Mitchell Fick was
elected temporary and later Mrs. W. S. Griswold permanent chairman.

On the afternoon of August 21, old and new suffrage workers joined in
a celebration at Seattle of the final ratification by the Legislature
of Tennessee, which was attended by over two hundred women.

* * * * *

Election returns furnish conclusive proof that the women of Washington
use the ballot. After 1910 the total registration of the State nearly
doubled, although men outnumber women, and the women apparently vote
in the same proportion as men. A tremendous increase of interest among
them in civic, economic and political affairs followed the adoption of
suffrage and the results were evidenced by a much larger number of
laws favorably affecting the status of women and the home passed in
the ten year period following 1910 than during the previous ten year
period. Uniform hostility to liquor, prostitution and vice has been
shown; also to working conditions adversely affecting the health and
morals of women and children.

The vote of the women was the deciding factor in the Seattle recall
election of February 8, 1911, when Mayor Hiram Gill was removed
because of vice conditions permitted to flourish under his
administration. It was acknowledged that, due to a strong combination
of the vice and public utility interests of the city, he would have
been retained but for their opposition. His re-electi