omen who remained at
home, in the absence of fathers and sons for four years, faced all the
problems of practical life. Who can estimate the value of training in
cooperative work and organization which the Civil War gave to the
American women?

In the Civil War, women directly served men; but in the great industrial
reorganization which came afterward they served mainly women and
children. Here the victories have been won in the press, in the
legislative halls, and in courts of law. Working with men, or alone,
they have perfected organization, agitated, raised money, printed
appeals, and carried cases through the courts, until factories and
stores have been made safer, excessive working hours have been cut down,
young children have been exempted from labor, many sweat-shops have
been closed, and women workers have begun to be organized to care for
their own needs. Much has been done; more remains to be done; but the
training of the women has gone steadily forward.

These, then, are the forces which have pushed women forward in America:
European political and religious persecution, the forest necessities of
colonial life, the American Revolution, the struggle with slavery and
intemperance, the Civil War, the industrial struggle and the need to
protect women and children from capitalistic exploitation. Possibly
women have now reached a point in their development where they can turn
to public service and to a full realization of their powers and
responsibilities without the goading necessity of a great wrong. If not,
there are sufficient wrongs still calling to lead them for many years.
Intemperance is not yet banished; the negro is not yet freed from the
effects of his slavery; working women and children are not yet fairly
protected; disease reaps needlessly large harvests; Lazarus still begs
at the table of Dives; our public education leaves much to be desired;
criminals are badly handled; millions of European refugees come marching
into our land needing guidance. Meantime, millions of women are content,
because themselves comfortable, and there are some even willing to aid
the powers of obstruction.

In these later years, marvelous changes have taken place all over the
world. Even in China, official attempts are now being made to leave
women free to walk by abolishing the bandaging of infants' feet. In
Turkey, women are going out from the harem to participate in public
life. In Germany, they are escaping from the exc