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T62 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE 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 conven- tion. 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. Singleton, its secretary, to request of Mrs. Trout and Mrs. McGraw that the work be directed by the leaders of the State Equal Suffrage Association, to which they agreed. They went to Springfield at the beginning of the session in 1917 and a struggle followed that lasted over ten weeks. [Mrs. McGraw prepared a very full account of the work in the Legislature to have it submit to the voters the question of calling a convention to prepare a new constitution. Representa- tives of all the leading organizations of women assisted at Spring- field from time to time. The resolution had the powerful sup- port of Governor Frank C. Lowden, Congressman Medill Mc- Cormick, Roger C. Sullivan and other prominent men, but the Citizens' Association in an official bulletin gave the larger part of the credit to "the tireless and tactful work of the women's lobby." After Senate and House by more than a two-thirds