vative and the Iowa laws on the whole were not
oppressive enough to stir the average woman to active propaganda for a
share in making and administering them. Therefore the association
proceeded along the beaten path--by way of education, aided by social
and economic evolution, from which not even the most non-progressive
woman can protect herself, much less protect her daughters. The
association never missed an annual meeting and the women elected each
year to carry on its work were those who knew that the cause might be
delayed but could not be permanently defeated.

The convention of 1901 was held in November at Waterloo and Mrs.
Adelaide Ballard was elected president, having previously served two
terms. The conventions of 1902, 1903 and 1904 took place in October in
Des Moines, Boone and Sheldon, and Mrs. Mary J. Coggeshall was each
year elected president, having held the office two years at earlier
dates. The annual meeting of 1905 was held in November at Panora; that
of 1906 in September at Ida Grove, and Bertha A. Wilcox was each year
elected president.

The conventions of 1907 and 1908 took place in October at Des Moines
and Boone and the Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon was at each elected
president. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association, who was present at the Boone convention,
had just returned from England and was accompanied by two young
English women who had campaigned for suffrage there and who took part
in the convention. She had marched in a parade in London and was very
desirous that parades should be held here. After much urging from her
and the president, and with great trepidation and many misgivings on
the part of the members, a procession was formed and marched through
the principal streets on October 29. The Boone _Daily News_ said: "The
members of the Equal Suffrage Association in convention, scores of the
local women interested in the movement and the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union united in a monster parade through the main streets.
The Wilder-Yeoman Band led with the Rev. Eleanor Gordon, president,
Mrs. Coggeshall, honorary president, Mrs. Julia Clark Hallam, Dr. Shaw
of Philadelphia and the Misses Rendell and Costelloe of London next in
the procession. From every viewpoint it was a success." This was the
first or one of the first suffrage parades to be held in the United
States and it required much courage to take part in it. The crowd
which lined the