the International Woman Suffrage
Alliance was formed which soon encircled the globe. This year the
International Council of Women, the largest organized body of women in
existence, formed a standing committee on woman suffrage with branches
in every country. In 1914 the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the
largest organization in the United States, declared for woman suffrage
and this was preceded or followed by a similar declaration by every
State Federation. National associations of women for whatever purpose,
with almost no exceptions, demanded the franchise as an aid to their
objects, until the stock objection that women do not want to vote was
silenced. Women who opposed the movement became alarmed and undertook
to organize in opposition, thereby exposing their weakness. Their
organization was largely confined to a small group of eastern States
and developed no strength west of the Allegheny mountains. Its leaders
were for the most part connected with corporate interests and did not
believe in universal suffrage for men. There was no evidence that they
exercised any considerable influence in Congress or in any State where
a vote was taken on granting the franchise to women.

An outstanding feature of the present century has been the entrance of
women into the industrial field, following the work which under modern
conditions was taken from the homes to the factories. Thus without
their volition they became the competitors of men in practically every
field of labor. Unorganized and without the protection of a vote they
were underpaid and a menace to working men. In self-defense,
therefore, the labor unions were compelled to demand the ballot for
women. They were followed by other organizations of men until hundreds
were on record as favoring woman suffrage. Men trying to bring about
civic or political reforms in the old parties or through new ones and
feeling their weakness turned to women with their great organizations
but soon realized their inefficiency without political power. The old
objections were losing their force. The lessening size of families and
the removal of the old time household tasks from the home left women
with a great deal of leisure which they were utilizing in countless
ways that took them out into the world, so that there was no longer
any weight in the charge that the suffrage would cause women to
forsake their domestic duties for public life. Women of means began
coming into the movemen