Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/175

ILLINOIS l6l any one to demand a count." Afterwards the Illinois members recommended Mrs. Trout as an honorary member of the General Federation and she was unanimously elected. By an interesting coincidence the day the suffrage resolution was passed by the Biennial the State Supreme Court pronounced the Suffrage Law constitutional. A banquet had already been planned by the State association for that evening to be held in the Gold Room of the Congress Hotel in honor of the General 1 -M It-ration, and it proved to be a memorable occasion. Over a thousand women were present and nearly as many more could not find room. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Miss Mary Garrett 1 lay and other well known suffragists, as well as the officers of the Federation, made speeches. All these events changed public sentiment in regard to the woman suffrage question. As Congress was in session this summer its members were unable to fill their Chautauqua lecture dates, and Mrs. Trout was asked to make suffrage speeches at fifty Chautauquas in nine States, filling dates for a Democrat, the Hon. Champ Clark, and for a Republican, United States Sen- ator Robert LaFollette, and for William Jennings Bryan. The State convention was held in Chicago in 1914 and Mrs. Trout was again re-elected president. During this year the ('hicai, r o F.qual 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 ively refused to stand again for president and Mrs. Adella Maxwell Brown of Peoria was elected. Four State conferences held during the year and Mrs. I'rown represented the asso- ciation at the National Suffrage Association at Washington in December; the Mississippi V'alley Conference at Minneapolis tin- May: tin- National Council of Women Voters at Cheyenne in July and the National SnlTr.ii'c Association at Atlantic City in In June. 1916, the State association, assisted by e of Ch: 'ook charge of what hecanie known as the '.mis rainy day suffrage parade." held in that city while the i Republican convention was in session. Mrs. Brown