t their
plot had failed.

The women were indebted to David R. Shanahan, for many years an
influential Republican member, who, representing a "wet" district in
Chicago, felt that he could not vote for the bill, but without his
counsel it would have been still more difficult to pass it. To
overcome the pitfalls, Mrs. Trout appealed to the enemies to give the
women of Illinois a square deal, especially to Lee O'Neil Browne, a
powerful Democratic leader. He had always opposed suffrage
legislation, but he finally consented to let the bill, so far as he
was concerned, be voted up or down on its merits. It was this spirit
of fair play among its opponents as well as the loyalty of its friends
that made possible the final victory.

Up to this time Mrs. Trout and Mrs. Booth had worked alone, but now
Mrs. Trout asked Mrs. Antoinette Funk, a lawyer, of Chicago, who had
done active work for the Progressive party, to come to Springfield,
and she arrived on May 13. A week later Mrs. Medill McCormick came to
reside in the capital and her services were immediately enlisted. She
was a daughter of the late Senator Mark Hanna, who had inherited much
of her father's ability in politics and was an important addition to
the suffrage lobby. On May 14 the bill had its first reading and was
referred to the Elections Committee. On the 21st it was reported with
a recommendation that it "do pass." The opponents were now thoroughly
alarmed. Anton J. Cermak of Chicago, president of the United
Societies, a powerful organization of liquor interests, directed the
fight against it. Leaflets were circulated giving the "preferential"
suffrage vote taken in Chicago the year before, with a list of the
negative votes cast in each ward to show the Chicago members how badly
it had been beaten by their constituents. The bill was called up for
second reading June 3 and there was a desperate attempt to amend and
if possible kill it, but it finally passed in just the form it had
come over from the Senate.

The hope of the opposition now was to keep Speaker McKinley from
allowing the bill to come up for third reading. He told Mrs. Trout
that hundreds of men from Chicago as well as from other parts of the
State had come to Springfield and begged him to prevent it from coming
to a vote. The young Speaker looked haggard and worn during those
days, and he asked her to let him know it if there was any suffrage
sentiment in the State. She immediately telephoned to Mrs