State Equal Suffrage Association tendered a banquet at the Leland
Hotel in Springfield on June 13 to the legislators and their wives,
opponents as well as friends, and prominent suffragists came from over
the State. Mrs. Trout asked Mrs. McCormick to take charge of the
banquet and she had a roll of honor printed which the men who voted
for the suffrage bill were invited to sign, and the Governor's
signature was also obtained. As soon as he entered the banquet hall
Mrs. Trout, in charge of the program, called upon the banqueters to
rise and do honor to the Governor who would soon, by signing the
suffrage bill, win the everlasting gratitude of all men and women in
Illinois interested in human liberty. The very day the bill passed the
House a committee of anti-suffrage legislators called upon Governor
Dunne to urge him to veto it and tried to influence Attorney General
Patrick J. Lucey to declare it unconstitutional, which would give him
an excuse. Mrs. McCormick immediately went to Chicago and secured
opinions from able lawyers that the bill was constitutional, and he
stood out against all opposition and signed it on June 26.

On July 1 a jubilee automobile parade was arranged by Mrs. Treadwell
with Mrs. Kenneth McLennan as grand marshal, and the cars filled with
enthusiastic suffragists extended several miles down Michigan
Boulevard. The first important work was to arouse the women of the
State to a realization of all the good that could be accomplished by
the wise use of the franchise. The entire cost of the Springfield
campaign, which lasted over six months and included railroad fare for
the lobbyists, innumerable telegrams and long distance telephone
calls, postage, stationery, printing, stenographic help, hotel bills
and incidentals, was only $1,567, but it left the treasury of the
association empty. The board therefore gratefully accepted the offer
of William Randolph Hearst of a suffrage edition of the Chicago
_Examiner_. He agreed to pay for the cost of publication and permit
the funds raised through the sale of the papers and the advertising to
go into the suffrage treasury. The women were weary from the campaign
and most of the board were going away for the summer but Mrs. Trout
rallied her forces, was general manager herself and persuaded Mrs.
Funk to be managing editor, Miss Dobyne advertising manager and Mrs.
Treadwell circulation manager. As a result of almost six weeks' work
during the hottest part of the s