These were years, however, of marvelous development in the status of women, which every year brought nearer their political recognition. Girls outnumbered boys in the high schools; women crowded the colleges and almost monopolized the teaching in the public schools. Their organizations increased in size until they numbered millions and stretched across the seas. In 1904 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.