ober at Des Moines and Miss Lawther
was re-elected. The country was now in the midst of war, and, like
patriotic women everywhere, Iowa suffragists turned all their
attention to helping win it. Miss Lawther served on a special
committee appointed by the Governor to organize the women of the State
for war activities. Every woman on the suffrage board filled an
important position in the various State war organizations and every
county chairman and local member was active in the work of her
community. The women worked long, full days for the war and far into
the night for suffrage.

When the State convention met at Cedar Rapids in September, 1918, the
women were still immersed in war work. Meanwhile the Lower House of
Congress had voted to submit the Federal Woman Suffrage Amendment and
for some months the efforts of the association had been centered on
this amendment. It had secured pledges from all the Iowa
representatives in Congress to vote for it except Harry E. Hull, who
voted against it. In June a "suffrage school" had been held in Penn
College, Oskaloosa, for the express purpose of educating women in the
need of this amendment and the necessity of educating State
legislators to the point where it would be ratified as soon as it was
submitted. Miss Lawther was again re-elected but resigned the next
June and Mrs. James E. Devitt, the vice-president, filled the office.

In 1919 the association was in the thick of the struggle to obtain
from the Legislature Primary and Presidential suffrage. The former was
defeated; the latter passed both houses in April. The Federal
Amendment was ratified by the Legislature July 2.

The work of the Equal Suffrage Association seemed finished. The half
century of agitation, education and evolution was completed. The 48th
and last annual convention was held Oct. 2, 1919, in Boone, which had
been its hostess many times, and the association was happily dissolved
by unanimous vote. The State League of Women Voters was at once
organized with Miss Flora Dunlap, chairman, and the old workers faced
the new task of making political suffrage for women the privilege and
blessing they always had believed it would prove to be.

LEGISLATIVE ACTION. A resolution to submit to the voters a woman
suffrage amendment to the State constitution was introduced in every
General Assembly beginning with 1870. In the early years petitions
were sent, the number of signatures rising from 8,000 in 1884 to
100,0