Meanwhile women were entering nearly every branch of industry and business.  How many of them worked at gainful occupations before 1870 we do not know; but from that year forward we have the records of the census.  Between 1870 and 1900 the proportion of women in the professions rose from less than two per cent to more than ten per cent; in trade and transportation from 24.8 per cent to 43.2 per cent; and in manufacturing from 13 to 19 per cent.  In 1910, there were over 8,000,000 women gainfully employed as compared with 30,000,000 men.  When, during the war on Germany, the government established the principle of equal pay for equal work and gave official recognition to the value of their services in industry, it was discovered how far women had traveled along the road forecast by the leaders of 1848.

=The Club Movement among Women.=—­All over the country women’s societies and clubs were started to advance this or that reform or merely to study literature, art, and science.  In time these women’s organizations of all kinds were federated into city, state, and national associations and drawn into the consideration of public questions.  Under the leadership of Frances Willard they made temperance reform a vital issue.  They took an interest in legislation pertaining to prisons, pure food, public health, and municipal government, among other things.  At their sessions and conferences local, state, and national issues were discussed until finally, it seems, everything led to the quest of the franchise.  By solemn resolution in 1914 the National Federation of Women’s Clubs, representing nearly two million club women, formally endorsed woman suffrage.  In the same year the National Education Association, speaking for the public school teachers of the land, added its seal of approval.

=State and National Action.=—­Again the suffrage movement was in full swing in the states.  Washington in 1910, California in 1911, Oregon, Kansas, and Arizona in 1912, Nevada and Montana in 1914 by popular vote enfranchised their women.  Illinois in 1913 conferred upon them the right to vote for President of the United States.  The time had arrived for a new movement.  A number of younger suffragists sought to use the votes of women in the equal suffrage states to compel one or both of the national political parties to endorse and carry through Congress the federal suffrage amendment.  Pressure then came upon Congress from every direction:  from the suffragists who made a straight appeal on the grounds of justice; and from the suffragists who besought the women of the West to vote against candidates for President, who would not approve the federal amendment.  In 1916, for the first time, a leading presidential candidate, Mr. Charles E. Hughes, speaking for the Republicans, endorsed the federal amendment and a distinguished ex-President, Roosevelt, exerted a powerful influence to keep it an issue in the campaign.

[Illustration:  Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.