The Republican State convention met in Dover April 20 and the Equal Suffrage Association made one of the most remarkable demonstrations the State had ever seen. Every road was ablaze with decorated automobiles and hundreds of suffragists arrived on every train. They marched and they talked and in themselves they constituted the best argument that could be made for ratification. American flags and suffrage banners were used all over the town. With Mrs. Ridgely presiding, speeches were made all day on the green in front of the State House, and from an automobile in front of the Republican convention hall Miss Shuler and others spoke. Long petition sheets with the names of 20,000 Delaware women asking for ratification were exhibited. The crowning feature of the day was a parade of "suffrage children"--the children of suffragists--a long line mounted on ponies and bicycles down to the babies in the "go carts." The speech of the permanent chairman of the convention, a staunch suffragist, Robert Houston of Georgetown, Sussex county, was a strong appeal for ratification and it called out the greatest outburst of enthusiasm of the day. The convention unanimously passed a resolution calling on the Legislature to ratify the amendment. On the table was a vase of jonquils, and when the president of the anti-suffrage association rushed to the platform and demanded that they be removed or that red roses be added she was met by the chairman of arrangements with the quiet answer, "We are not complimenting the 'antis' today, we are using the Republican color and that is the suffrage color." The jonquils largely outnumbered the roses on the coats of the delegates. While no Republican could now vote against ratification without repudiating his party it was plainly evident that the majority of Democrats were opposed to it and on the day of their State convention their party leaders, including United States Senator Wolcott and the chairman, Josiah Marvel, blossomed in red, the "anti" color. Former United States Senator Saulsbury's paper printed editorials of violent opposition throughout the struggle.