But here is a notable thing.  The women of the suffrage States differ so little from the women of other States, and women in general, that the chief concerns of their lives are the home, the school, and the baby,—­the Kaiser’s “Kirche, Kueche, und Kinder” over again.  They vote with enthusiasm on all questions which relate to domestic interests, that is, which directly relate to them and their children.  Aside from this, the woman vote has made a deep impression on the moral character of candidates and that is about all it has meant.  In general politics women have counted scarcely more than have the women of other States.

But the new interest in suffrage, the new realization of themselves as citizens that has been aroused all over the United States within the past two years have seriously affected the women voters of at least one suffrage State, Colorado.

The women of Colorado, especially the women of Denver, have for several years taken an active part in legislation directly affecting themselves and their children.  The legislative committee of the Colorado State Federation of Clubs has held regular meetings during the sessions of the State Legislature, and it has been a regular custom to submit to that committee for approval all bills relating to women and children.  This never seemed to the politicians to be anything very dangerous to their interests.  It was, in a manner of speaking, a chivalric acknowledgment of women’s virtue as wives and mothers.

But lately the women of Colorado have begun to wake up to the fact that not only special legislation, but all legislation, is of direct interest to them.  It has lately dawned upon them that the matter of street railway franchise affects the home as directly as a proposition to erect a high school.  Also it has dawned on them that without organization, and more organization, the woman vote was more or less powerless.  So, about a year ago they formed in Denver an association of women which they called the Public Service League.  Nothing quite like it ever existed before.  It is a political but non-partisan association of women, pledged to work for the civic betterment of Denver, pledged to fight the corrupt politicians, determined that the city government shall be well administered even if the women have to take over the offices themselves.  The League is, in effect, a secret society of women.  It has an inflexible rule that its proceedings are to be kept inviolable.  There is a perfect understanding that any woman who divulges one syllable of what occurs at a meeting of the League will be instantly dropped from membership.  No woman has yet been dropped.