The original moving spirit in the Chicago organization was a remarkable young working girl, Josephine Casey.

Miss Casey sold tickets at one of the stations of the Chicago Elevated, and she formed her first woman suffrage club among the women members of the Union of Street and Elevated Railway Employees.

Later she organized on a larger scale the Women's Political Equality Union, with membership open to men and women alike.

The interest shown in the union by workingmen, many of whom had never before given the matter a moment's thought, was, from the first, extraordinary.

During the first winter of the society's existence, union after union called for Woman Suffrage speakers.
Addresses were made before fifty or more.