two banks, one of which — the "People's Bank" — was shut down by Postmaster General George B. Cortelyou because it would have offered mail-order services in direct competition with U.S. postal money orders. American Woman's League Penny-per-pound postage rates and Rural Free Delivery had brought Lewis a large rural readership for his two magazines, and mail order ads in the magazines allowed him to sell annual subscriptions for pennies and still make money. However, Lewis attracted the enmity of Postmaster General Cortelyou, who claimed that the magazines primarily functioned as advertising and therefore did not qualify for the magazine rate. Cortelyou accused him of defrauding the Post Office, and Lewis spent much of 1907 fighting the Post Office in court. Although Lewis eventually won the right to mail his periodicals at the magazine rate, he had lost many subscribers along the way. In 1907, in an effort to rebuild circulation, he founded the American Woman's League (AWL). At the time, magazine publishers often paid individuals a small fee to sell magazine subscriptions. In Lewis's plan, women who sold a certain base number of subscriptions would earn a free membership in the AWL. Their subscription fees would go into the AWL, funding a pool of benefits such as education and pensions to which all AWL members were entitled. The AWL proved to be a very popular concept and some 700 chapters were formed across the United States. However, the AWL struggled to make its funding model work, and it folded in 1912. American Woman's Republic In 1911, Lewis founded the American Woman's Republic (AWR) as a parallel organization to the American Woman's League. Funded by membership fees, the AWR was a kind of model republic designed to help women educate themselves in government and otherwise prepare themselves for a future in which they would have the right to vote. The AWR held its first convention the following year, ratifying a declaration of equal rights. AWR members took part in other suffrage organizations and became involved with the Women's Peace Army during World War I. Shortly after founding the AWR, Gardner decided to establish a new agrarian colony for the republic in what is now Atascadero, California (see next section). Although the capitol of the AWR was designated as University City until 1916, the rest of the republic's various ventures moved to Atascadero much sooner. Not much is known about the