rative, increase the
salaries of the women engaged in the noble work of educating our
future Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen."

For a moment after this bombshell, there was complete silence. Then
three men rushed down the aisle to congratulate her, telling her she
had pluck, that she had hit the nail on the head, but the women near
by glanced scornfully at her, murmuring, "Who can that creature be?"

Susan, however, had started a few women thinking and questioning, and
the next morning, Professor Davies, resplendent in his buff vest and
blue coat with brass buttons, opened the convention with an
explanation. "I have been asked," he said, "why no provisions have
been made for female lecturers before this association and why ladies
are not appointed on committees. I will answer." Then, in flowery
metaphor, he assured them that he would not think of dragging women
from their pedestals into the dust.

"Beautiful, beautiful," murmured the women in the back rows, but Mrs.
Northrup of Rochester offered resolutions recognizing the right of
women teachers to share in all the privileges and deliberations of the
organization and calling attention to the inadequate salaries women
teachers received. These resolutions were kept before the meeting by a
determined group and finally adopted. Susan also offered the name of
Emma Willard as a candidate for vice-president, thinking the
successful retired principal of the Troy Female Seminary, now
interested in improving the public schools, might also be willing to
lend a hand in improving the status of women in this educational
organization. Mrs. Willard, however, declined the nomination, refusing
to be drawn into Susan's rebellion.[41] Susan, nevertheless, left the
convention satisfied that she had driven an entering wedge into
Professor Davies' male stronghold, and she continued battering at
this stronghold whenever she had an opportunity. She meant to put
women in office and to win approval for coeducation and equal pay.

* * * * *

Teachers' conventions, however, were only a minor part of her new
crusade, plans for which were still simmering in her mind and
developing from day to day. Going back to many of the towns where she
had held temperance meetings, she found that most of the societies she
had organized had disbanded because women lacked the money to engage
speakers or to subscribe to temperance papers. If they were married,
they had no m