le could be accomplished for the suffrage
bill, but February 10 Mrs. Booth went to Springfield and from then
attended the sessions regularly. She sat in the galleries of the
Senate and House and soon learned to recognize each member and rounded
up and checked off friendly legislators.

The Progressives had a large representation and had made plans to
introduce as a party measure a carefully drafted Woman Suffrage bill.
Mrs. Trout and Mrs. Booth suggested to the leaders that it would be
far better to let the State association sponsor this measure than to
have it presented by any political party. They finally agreed, but
Mrs. McCulloch had accompanied Mrs. Booth to Springfield taking the
bill which she herself had drafted and which she insisted upon having
substituted. Out of deference to her long years of service her bill
was taken instead of the Progressives'. It named the officers for
which women should be allowed to vote instead of being worded like the
Progressive draft, which said: "Women shall be allowed to vote for all
officers and upon all propositions submitted except where the
Constitution provides that the elector shall be a male citizen." In
Mrs. Booth's official report to the State convention, held in the fall
of 1913 at Peoria, she said: "As we failed to introduce the form of
bill approved by the Progressives' constitutional lawyers they
introduced it, and it required considerable tact to allay their
displeasure and induce them to support our bill." Medill McCormick,
one of the leading Progressives in the Legislature, helped greatly in
straightening out this tangle. He was a faithful ally of the suffrage
lobby and rendered invaluable assistance. Other Progressives who gave
important service were John M. Curran and Emil N. Zolla of Chicago; J.
H. Jayne of Monmouth; Charles H. Carmon of Forrest, and Fayette S.
Munro of Highland Park.[43]

On March 10 Mrs. Trout went to Springfield to secure if possible the
support of the Democratic Governor, Edward F. Dunne, for the bill.
Mrs. Booth said in her official report: "The Governor told us that he
would not support any suffrage measure which provided for a
constitutional amendment, as this might interfere with the Initiative
and Referendum Amendment, upon which the administration was
concentrating its efforts. We assured him that we would not introduce
a resolution for an amendment and that we desired the support of the
administration for our statutory bill, as we