Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/589

 RHODE ISLAND 573 In 1917 Mrs. LeBaron B. Colt of Bristol was appointed com- mittee chairman of the Women's Oversea Hospitals conducted by the National Suffrage Association and with the assistance of Mrs. Algeo and the party $3,000 were raised. After the passage of the Presidential suffrage bill in 1917 the party specialized in training for citizenship and conducted a campaign in naturaliza- tion in conjunction with the Americanization Committee of the National Association. In the fall under the direction of Mrs. Frederick H. Bagley of Boston, its chairman, efforts were made to secure from the Legislature an Americanization bill providing compulsory education for immigrants and also for a director of Americanization on the Board of Education, which was passed in 1919. Mrs. Agnes M. Bacon was appointed by the Governor. In 1919 Mrs. Algeo compiled and published Suggestions to the Women Voters of Rhode Island, of which thousands of copies were circulated. July i, being the first day of registration for the elections of the following year, she organized a state-wide cam- paign for the registration of women for using the presidential vote. It was celebrated in Providence by an imposing ceremony on the steps of the City Hall at noon, and in the evening by a banquet, at which Mrs. Charles H. Brooks of Kansas, national chairman of the League of Women Voters, and Mrs. Charles Tiffany of New York were the principal speakers. This year Miss Leila P. Andrews was elected president of the Woman Suffrage Party and Mrs. Algeo president of the Providence League of Women Voters. LEGISLATIVE ACTION. After the defeat of a woman suf- frage amendment to the State constitution in 1887 and the refusal of the Legislatures afterwards to submit it again the association decided to follow the advice of Henry B. Blackwell and try to obtain a vote for presidential electors, which could be led by a law. The proposition, first made in 1^92, met with practically no support among the legislators and finally further attempts to secure it were discontinued for years. At the annual 'ing of 1902 an address by Mr. Blackwell resulted in a resumption of efforts to secure this law and in 1903 a petition to the Legislature, signed by influential men and women, accom-