s held in Chicago in 1914 and Mrs. Trout was
again re-elected president. During this year the Chicago Equal
Suffrage Association did excellent educational work by establishing
classes in citizenship in the Woman's City Club and by publishing
catechisms for women voters in seven different languages.

At the annual convention held in Peoria in 1915 Mrs. Trout positively
refused to stand again for president and Mrs. Adella Maxwell Brown of
Peoria was elected. Four State conferences were held during the year
and Mrs. Brown represented the association at the National Suffrage
Association at Washington in December; the Mississippi Valley
Conference at Minneapolis the next May; the National Council of Women
Voters at Cheyenne in July and the National Suffrage Association at
Atlantic City in September. In June, 1916, the State association,
assisted by those of Chicago, took charge of what became known as the
"famous rainy day suffrage parade," held in that city while the
National Republican convention was in session. Mrs. Brown was
chairman of the committee, Mrs. Morrisson vice-chairman and Mrs.
Kellogg Fairbanks grand marshal of the parade.

There was much speculation among the political parties as to how the
women would vote at their first presidential election in November,
1916. As their ballots were put into separate boxes they could be
distinguished and they were as follows: Republican, 459,215;
Democratic, 383,292; Socialist, 17,175; Prohibition, 16,212; Socialist
Labor, 806.

Much important legislative work was to be done in the next session of
the Legislature and at the State convention held in Springfield in
October, 1916, Mrs. Trout was persuaded to accept again the
presidency. Delegates were present from every section and the policy
for the ensuing year was thoroughly discussed by Mrs. McCulloch,
Senator Magill, Lewis G. Stevenson, Secretary of State; Mrs. George
Bass, and others. The consensus of opinion was that owing to the great
difficulty of amending the State constitution the only practical way
to secure full suffrage for women was through a new constitution. This
convention, therefore, voted in an overwhelming majority to work in
the Legislature of 1917 for the calling of a constitutional
convention. The Citizens' Association, composed of leading men of
Chicago and the State, had been trying over thirty years to obtain a
new State constitution and as soon as they learned of this action they
sent Shelby M.