History of Woman Suffrage/Volume 4/Chapter 75
CHAPTER LXXV.
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF WOMEN.
The most conspicuous and significant movement which challenges attention at the beginning of the new century is that toward organization, and the three great combinations which stand out most prominently in interest and importance are the organization of capital, the organization of labor and the organization of women. We scarcely can go back so far in history as not to find men banded together to protect their mutual interests, but associations of women are of very modern date. The oldest on record was formed in Philadelphia, in the closing days of the eighteenth century — Female Society for the Relief and Employment of the Poor — which in 1798 established a house of industry in Arch St., known as the Home for Spinners. The society is still in active existence and gives employment to a large number of women. Church Missionary Societies of Women had their origin early in the century, but as mere annexes to those officered and managed by men. The first association to approach national prominence was the Female Anti-Slavery Society, founded in Boston in 1833, which almost cost the reputation of every one who joined it, so strong was the prejudice against any public action on the part of women. The American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless was established in New York in 1834, and still exists, having cared for 50,000 children. Later in this decade Female Bible Societies came into being to supply Bibles to penal and charitable institutions and to put them in various public places.
From 1840 to 1850 the old Washingtonian Societies, composed entirely of men, were gradually replaced by the Sons of Temperance, and as they also were decidedly' averse to receiving women into their organization, and as the latter were deeply interested in the subject, a few of them timidly formed the
Author of Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, and Joint Editor with her of The History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. IV.
ters of Temperance, in the face of extreme opposition on the part of both sexes. In the decade following commenced the agitation of the question of Woman Suffrage, and soon conventions in its interest began to be of frequent occurrence, to the joy of the newspapers, most of which treated them with ridicule and denunciation.
The decade ushered in by 1860 brought the long Civil War, during which, in the Sanitary Commission, the Woman's Loyal League, the Freedmen's Bureau and other associations, women displayed an unsuspected power of organization, and at its close their status in many ways was completely changed and greatly advanced.
In 1868 the country was electrified by the advent of Sorosis in New York City and the New England Woman's Club in Boston. These were the first societies formed by women purely for their own recreation and improvement — all others had been for the purpose of reforming the weak and sinful or assisting the needy and unfortunate — and they met with a storm of derision and protest from all parts of the country, which their founders courageously ignored. The last quarter of a century has witnessed so many organizations of women that it would be practically impossible to record even their names. Every village which is big enough for a church contains also a woman's club, and they exist in many country neighborhoods. In the larger cities single societies have from 500 to 1,000 members, and in a number handsome club houses have been built and furnished, some of them costing from $50,000 to $80,000.
From 1850 the annual conventions in the interest of Woman's Rights were called under the auspices of a Central Committee, but in 1869 the National and American Woman Suffrage Associations were formed. Five years later the Woman's Christian Temperance Union sprang into existence. There are now more than one hundred associations of women in the United States which are national in their form and aims, and a number have. become international through their alliance with those of other countries. In 1888, in Washington City, the National Council of Women, a heroic undertaking, was founded to gather these vast and diverse organizations into one great body. By 1900 sixteen had become thus affliated, representing a membership of about 1,125,000 women.
An International Council also was organized in 1888 to be composed of similar National Councils in various countries and to meet in a Congress every five years. At the close of the century fourteen National Councils had affiliated with the International, representing a membership of 6,000,000. This is not only immeasurably larger than any other association of women but is exceeded in size by very few organizations of men, and its two great Congresses — during the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, and at London in 1899 — were occasions of world-wide interest and value.
Each of the more than one hundred national associations of women in the United States holds its annual, biennial or triennial convention in some one of the large cities, which is attended by delegates from all parts of the country. The sessions are presided over by a woman, discussions are carried on with due attention to parliamentary usage, a large amount of business is transacted with system and accuracy, and in every respect these meetings compare favorably with those conducted by men after centuries of experience. They are treated with the greatest respect by the newspapers which vie with each other in publishing pictures of the delegates, their addresses and extended and complimentary reports of the proceedings. The character of these national organizations, the scope of their objects and the extent of their achievements can in no way be so strikingly illustrated as by giving a list of the most important.[1]
The International Council of Women was organized March 31, 1888, in Washington, D. C., "to unite the women of all the countries in the world for the promotion of co-operative internationalism through the abatement of that prejudice which springs from ignorance and which can be corrected only by that knowledge which results from personal acquaintance.
"In the first place its influence has united different organizations of the same country hitherto indifferent or inimical to each other; and in the second it has commenced the work of uniting the women of different nations and abating race prejudice. It has promoted the movement of peace and arbitration, and through its international committees it is forming a central bureau of information in regard to women's contribution to the work of the world."
It is composed at present of fourteen National Councils of as many different countries representing an individual membership cf about 6,000,000 women. Its president is Mrs. May Wright Sewall, who was one of its founders.
The National Council of Women was organized in Washington, D. C., March 31, 1888. Its constitution is introduced by the following preamble:
The scope of the Council's work is indicated by the heads of its departments: Home Life, Educational Interests, Church and Missionary Work, Temperance, Art, Moral Reform, Political Conditions, Philanthropy, Social Economics, Foreign Relations, Press, Organization; and by its standing committees: Citizenship, Domestic Science, Equal Pay for Equal Work, Dress Reform, Social Purity, Domestic Relations under the Law, Press, Care of Dependent and Delinquent Children, Peace and Universal Arbitration.
Each of these departments and committees works along its special lines and at the annual executive meetings and the triennial Councils the reports of their work are discussed, their recommendations considered and every possible assistance rendered. The general public is invited to the evening sessions and valuable addresses are made by specialists on the above and other important subjects.
The Council is composed of sixteen national organizations, one State Council, six local councils — representing a membership of about 1,125,000 women.
The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 18-20, 1874, to carry the precepts of the following pledge into the practice of everyday life:
"I hereby solemnly promise, God helping me, to abstain from all distilled, fermented and malt liquors, including wine, beer and cider, and to employ all proper means to discourage the use of and traffic in the same."
Its object was further stated as follows: "To confirm and enforce the rationale of this pledge, we declare our purpose to educate the young; to form a better public sentiment; to reform, so far as possible, by religious, ethical and scientific means, the drinking classes; to seek the transforming power of divine grace for ourselves and all for whom we work, that they and we may wilfully transcend no law of pure and wholesome living; and finally we pledge ourselves to labor and to pray that all these principles, founded upon the Gospel of Christ, may be worked out into the Customs of Society and the Laws of the "Land."
The W. C. T. U. is held to be the most perfectly organized body of women in existence. It originated the idea of Scientific Temperance Instruction in the public schools and has secured mandatory laws in every State and a federal law governing the District of Columbia, the Territories and all Indian and military schools supported by the Government; 16,000,000 children in the public schools receive instruction under these laws as to the nature and effect of alcohol and other narcotics on the human system. Through its efforts the quarterly temperance lesson was included in the International Sunday School Lesson Series in 1884, and a World's Universal Temperance Sunday was secured; 250,000 children are taught scientific reasons for temperance in the Loyal Temperance Legions, and all these children are pledged to total abstinence and trained as temperance workers. W. C. T. U. Schools of Methods are held in all Chautauqua gatherings.
This organization has largely influenced the change in public sentiment in regard to social drinking, equal suffrage, equal purity for both sexes, equal remuneration for work equally well done, equal educational, professional and industrial opportunities for women. It has been a chief factor in State campaigns for statutory prohibition, constitutional amendment, reform laws in general and those for the protection of women and children in particular, and in securing anti-gambling and anti-cigarette laws. It has been instrumental in raising the "age of protection" for girls in many States and in obtaining curfew laws in 400 towns and cities. It aided in securing the Anti-Canteen Amendment to the Army Bill (1900) which prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors at all army posts. It helped to inaugurate police matrons who are now required in nearly all the large cities of the United States. It organized Mothers' Meetings in thirty-seven States before any other society took up the work. Illinois alone has held 2,000 Mothers' Meetings in a single year.
It keeps a superintendent of legislation in Washington during the entire session of Congress to look after reform bills. It aided in preventing the repeal of the prohibitory law in Indian Territory, the resubmission of the prohibitory constitution of Maine, and in preserving the prohibitory law of Vermont. It has secured 20,000,ooo signatures and attestations, including 7,000,000 on the Polyglot Petition to the governments of the world. Thousands of girls have been rescued from lives of shame and tens of thousands of men have signed the total abstinence pledge and been redeemed from inebriety through its efforts.
The association protests against the legalizing of all crimes, especially those of prostitution and liquor selling. It protests against the sale of liquor in Soldiers': Homes, where now an aggregate of $253,027 is spent annually for intoxicating liquors, and only about one-fifth of the soldiers' pension money is sent home to their families. It protests against the United States Government receiving a revenue for liquors sold within prohibitory territory, either local or State, and against all complicity of the Federal Government with the liquor traffic. It protests against lynching and lends its aid in favor of the enforcement of law. It works for the highest well-being of our soldiers and sailors and especially for suitable temperance canteens and a generous mess. It works for the protection of the home, especially against its chief enemy, the liquor traffic, and for the redemption of our Government from this curse, by the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes.
The organizing of this great society in the various States and Territories, and the systematizing of the work under forty different departments, is due to the efforts of Miss Frances E. Willard more than to any other one person, and its success is indebted largely to her ability and personal popularity. As its president until her death in 1898, she not only perfected the organization in this country, but originated the idea of the Polyglot Petition and of the World's W. C. T. U., which was organized under the auspices of that of the United States. It now includes fifty-eight different countries and has 500,000 members.
The official organ, The Union Signal, a weekly of sixteen pages, is issued by the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association of Chicago, which publishes also The Young Crusader and many books and leaflets. The National W. C. T. U. gives away 5,000,000 pages of literature per year, exclusive of that circulated by the States and different departments. It has received and expended since its organization in round numbers $400,000. This does not include the large expenditures of the various State and local unions.
Every State and Territory in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, has a W. C. T. U., and one is beginning in the Philippines. These are auxiliary to the National. It is organized locally in over 10,000 cities and towns. The Young Woman's Christian Temperance Union is called a branch, also the Loyal Temperance Legions among children. There are thirty-eight other departments, and it is usual to include the two branches and speak of forty departments. The membership paying dues is 300,000. There was a gain of 15,000 members this year above all losses.
The Frances E. Willard National Temperance Hospital and Training School for Nurses, in Chicago, is owned and controlled by an incorporated board of thirty trustees. Its basic principle is the cure of disease without the use of alcohol as an active medicinal agent. Eminent physicians are on the staff and every effort is made to have it rank with the very best of hospitals.
At the national convention in Washington, D. C., in 1900, fifty States and Territories were represented by 509 delegates. Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens succeeded Miss Willard as president.
The American National Red Cross Society was organized March 1, 1882, with headquarters at Washington, D. C. Its object is the relief of suffering by war, pestilence, famine, flood, fires, and other calamities of sufficient magnitude to be deemed national in extent. It is governed by the provisions of the International Convention of Aug. 22, 1864, at Geneva, Switzerland.
Up to the present time relief has been given on fields as follows: Michigan forest fires, 1881, material and money, $80,000; Mississippi floods, 1882, money and seeds, $8,000; Mississippi floods, 1883, material and seeds, $18,500; Mississippi cyclone, 1883, money, $1,000; Balkan war, 1883, money, $500; Ohio and Mississippi river floods, 1884, food, clothing, tools, housefurnishings and feed for stock, $175,000; Texas famine, 1885, appropriations and contributions, $120,000; Charleston, S. C., earthquake, 1886, money, $500; Mt. Vernon, Ill., cyclone, 1888, money and supplies, $85,000; Florida yellow fever epidemic, 1888, physicians and nurses, $15,000; Johnstown, Pa., flood disaster, 1889, money and all kinds of building material, furniture, etc., $250,000; Russian famine, 1891-2, food, $125,000; Pomeroy, Ia., cyclone, 1893, money and nurses, $2,700; South Carolina Islands hurricane and tidal wave disaster, money and all kinds of supplies, material, tools, seeds, lumber, $65,000; reconcentrado relief in Cuba, 1898-9, $500,000; American-Spanish War, 1898-9, $450,000; Galveston flood and hurricane, 1900, $120,000; total, $2,016,200.
Miss Clara Barton was its principal founder and has been its president continuously.
The Association of Collegiate Alumnae was organized January 14, 1882; incorporated by special act of the Massachusetts Legislature, April 20, 1899, to unite the alumnae of different institutions for practical educational work.
From 1890 to 1901 the association gave fourteen $500 European fellowships (sharing two others) and ten $300 American fellowships. Among those holding the fellowships was the first woman admitted to the laboratory of the United States Fish Commission, the first woman to receive the Ph. D. degree from Yale, the first woman admitted to Göttingen University, the first woman permitted to work in the biological laboratory at Strasburg University, the first American woman to receive the degree of Ph. D. from any German university, and the first American woman to receive a Ph. D. from Göttingen and Heidelberg Universities,
The character of the work accomplished by those holding fellowships made it possible for the association to establish, three years ago, a Council to Accredit Women for Advanced Work in Foreign Universities. Any woman applicant, college graduate or otherwise, found qualified in work, character and serious purpose, receives a certificate properly signed and attested which will secure for her, if possible to any woman, the courtesy and privileges desired at a foreign university.
The organization contributes to the support of the Association for Maintaining the American Woman’s Table at the Zoological Station at Naples and to that for Promoting Scientific Research by Women. The latter pays $500 annually for the support of the Woman’s Table, and to promote research has just offered a prize of $1,000, which offer, it is expected, will be renewed biennially.
The A. C. A. Committee on Corporate Membership maintains a high standard of colleges whose graduates are admitted to this organization, which has done much in a quiet way to raise the standards of department work, equipment and endowment of American colleges admitting women.
For the past three years the association has published a magazine containing the addresses and reports given at its annual meetings. Among its other publications are statistics relative to the Health of College Women (1885); a Bibliography of the Higher Education of Women (1897) ; a full descriptive list of the fellowships for graduate study open to women in this country, together with a list of the undergraduate scholarships offered to women in the nineteen colleges belonging to the A. C. A. (1899). It will soon issue studies of the growth and development of colleges, a supplement to the Bibliography of the Higher Education of Women, a study of the child from the point of view of parents and teachers, and a comprehensive statistical investigation into the health, occupations and marriage-rate of college and non-college women.
The work of the national association is carried on largely by standing committees which are under the leadership of the women most notable in education—college presidents, deans and professors. Meanwhile, the president, six vice-presidents and presidents of the various branches, acting through a salaried secretarytreasurer, give coherency and support to the development of its various objects. In addition, each branch has committees which deal with local issues, such as public school work of all kinds, home economics, development of children, civil service reform, college settlements, etc. The investigation of the sanitary conditions of the Boston public schools, 1895-1896, started the wave of schoolhouse cleaning which has swept across the country and which has not stopped at schoolhouses but has included school boards and systems of school administration. The Chicago branch has just issued a summary of laws relating to compulsory education and child-labor in the United States, which shows the inadequacy of the first (except in three States) and the lack of correlation between the two which makes for lawlessness and crime. It is hoped that this summary will serve as a basis for agitation which shall not cease until compulsory education becomes a fact and not a theory.
The association has twenty-five branches and 3,000 members.
The Association for the Advancement of Women was organized in New York in October, 1873, at the very beginning of the club movement, to interest the women of the country in matters of high thought and in all undertakings found to be useful to society, and to promote their efficiency in these through sympathetic acquaintance and co-operation. It had a number of distinguished presidents and held congresses in many States, which almost invariably led to the formation of local clubs for study and mutual improvement, as well as to good works in other lines. Among the cities in which a congress was held were New York, Syracuse, Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Madison, St. Paul, Toronto, Baltimore, Memphis, Knoxville, Louisville, Atlanta and New Orleans. Many distinguished women were included in its membership and it had a strong influence in rendering possible the extensive formation of the women's clubs which are now so important a feature in American society. Its work is partly chronicled in two large volumes which give the papers presented and action taken at the meetings. The many great organizations of women in recent years have made further work on the part of the association unnecessary.
The General Federation of Women's Clubs was organized March 20, 1890, to bring into communication the various women's clubs in order that they may compare methods and become mutually helpful. The work is accomplished through three committees — Art, Education and Industries. Those on Art have used their influence toward its study and its application to the home, and also for the quickening of enthusiasm in horticulture and gardening, from which has developed the beautifying of public squares and school yards. In Education some of the most important results are the establishment of hundreds of traveling libraries, assistance in organizing and fostering kindergartens, encouragement of manual training in the public schools, and the formation of Mothers' Clubs for the study of child culture. The federation has worked with other organizations for the appointment of women on school boards and legislation for broader educational advantages for women. In fact, its work has ranged from kindergarten to university.
The Industrial Committee studies conditions surrounding wage-earning women and children and encourages co-operation between the woman of leisure and the one who is self-supporting, and the organization of laboring women in unions and clubs. One principal object is to eliminate the child from the factory and then to educate it. The Civic work has ranged from Health Protective Associations in cities to Village Improvement Societies.
There are thirty-six State Federations, eleven foreign clubs and nearly 700 individual clubs belonging to the federation, representing Over 200,000 members (1900).
The National Association of Colored Women was organized July, 1896, to arouse all women, especially colored women, to a sense of their responsibility, both in molding the life of the home and in shaping the principles of the nation; to secure the co-operation of all women in whatever is undertaken in the interest of justice, purity and liberty; to inspire in all women, but especially in colored women, a desire to be useful in whatever field of labor they can work to the best advantage.
Kindergartens and day nurseries for the infants of working women have been established; mothers' meetings have been generally held and sewing classes formed; a sanitarium with a training school for nurses has been founded in New Orleans; ground purchased on which an Old Folks' Home is to be built in Memphis, and charity dispensed in various ways. Women on plantations in the "black belt'? of Alabama have been taught how to make their huts decent and habitable with the small means at their command, and how to care for themselves and their families in accordance with the rules of health. Schools of Domestic Science are conducted, and a large branch is that of Business Women's Clubs. The Convict Lease System, "Jim Crow" Car Laws, Lynching and other barbarities are thoroughly discussed, in the hope that some remedy for these evils may be discovered. Statistics concerning the progress and achievements of colored people are being gathered. Musical clubs are formed to develop this inherent gift. An organ is published called Notes, edited by Mrs. Booker T. Washington and an assistant in each State.
The association has 125 branches in twenty-six States and over 8,000 members.
The National Congress of Mothers held its first public convention at Washington in February, 1897, and permanent organization was effected there in 1898. Its objects are to raise the standards of home life; to give young women opportunities to learn how to care for children; to bring into closer relations the home and the school; to surround the childhood of the whole world with that wise, loving care in the impressionable years of life which will develop good citizens.
Practical efforts have been made to accomplish all of these objects. Mothers have used their influence in behalf of free kindergartens in the public schools; in having school buildings properly constructed, lighted, heated and ventilated, and for shorter hours in school and less study outside. They have lent their efforts to the uplifting of the drama, since, rightfully used, it can be made a powerful educational factor, and have worked for a pure press, recognizing that it is the greatest material power in the world today. They have regarded their children first of all as future mothers and fathers, next as citizens, and they are demanding that public educational systems adopt their standards of values in the adjustment of curricula.
They have established Mothers' Clubs in many communities, especially among women whose opportunities for training of any kind have been meager; have seen that creches and free kindergartens are provided for the children of the poor; that reading rooms are open for the use of boys and girls; have urged that women should serve upon all school boards and those of all prisons and reformatory institutions; have taken the city fathers to task wherever laws pertaining to the cleanliness and health of a community are not enforced; have called mass meetings once a month to discuss questions pertaining to the welfare of the child; by precept and example have set forth the advantages of simplicity of dress and entertainment, and have interested themselves in all kinds of humane work.
State Congresses have been formed in nine States, exact membership not known. Mrs. Theodore W. Birney was the founder of the organization and has been its president continuously.
The National Woman's Relief Society was organized March 17, 1842, at Nauvoo, Ills., being almost the oldest woman's society in existence. It became national in 1868 and was incorporated in 1892, to assist the needy, and to care for the afflicted, to lift up the fallen, to ameliorate the condition of suffering humanity, to encourage habits of industry and economy; to give special attention to those who have not had proper training for life, to sacredly care for the dying and the dead, to minister to the lonely, however lowly, in the spirit of grace and heavenly charity.
It has been a veritable school of instruction to thousands of women, and its organization is so perfect that it is comparatively easy to carry out any plan of work formed by the General Board. Donations are almost entirely by the members themselves, and they have working meetings, bazars and fairs occasionally to raise means for the needful purposes. Many of the branches have built houses for meetings and some also own houses for their poor instead of paying rent. Industries have been carried on to supply work to such as were able to do something for their own support. Of these the most notable is the silk industry in Utah. Over 100,000 bushels of wheat have been.stored in granaries against a day of famine or scarcity. Hundreds of nurses and many midwives have been trained under the fostering care of the society. At present money is being raised by donation to erect a commodious building in Salt Lake City opposite the Temple, suitable for headquarters.
The society has 659 branches and 30,000 members in this and other countries and upon the islands of the sea. Mrs. Eliza R. Snow and Mrs. Zina D. H. Young have been the only two presidents.
The International Sunshine Society had its origin in the early nineties in a department edited by Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden in the New York Recorder, which she afterwards carried into the Tribune. It was first called the Shut-In Society, but the present name was adopted in 1896 and it was incorporated in 1900.
Its object is to incite its members to the performance of helpful deeds, and to thus bring happiness into the greatest possible number of hearts and homes. The membership fee consists of some act or suggestion that will carry sunshine where it is needed. This may be the! exchange of books, pictures, etc., loaning or giving useful articles, suggesting ideas for work that can be done by a "shutin" and sending the materials for it, making holiday suggestions and a general exchange of helpful ideas.
There are many Sunshine libraries, some of them traveling, all over the United States and Canada. In Memphis there is a Sunshine Home for Aged Men, a Newsboys' Club House and a Lunch Room for Working Girls. Several branches have Sunshine wards in hospitals. The leading women's clubs have Sunshine Committees, and hundreds of churches have them in their King's Daughters' and Christian Endeavor Societies. Among the thousands of articles which have been placed where they will do the most good are pianos, sewing machines, invalid chairs, baby carriages, furniture and clothing of every description.
There are more than 100,000 members and over 2,000 well-organized branches. The society is officered and managed by women and they compose the immense majority of the members. Mrs. Alden has been the president continuously.
The National Council of Jewish Women was organized in Chicago in 1893, as a result of the Congress of Jewish Women, which was a branch of the Parliament of Religions held during the Columbian Exposition. Its objects are to bring about closer relations among Jewish women and a means of prosecuting work of common interest; to further united efforts in behalf of Judaism through a better knowledge of the Bible, Jewish literature and conditions. It has given much attention to social reform through preventive philanthropy and it affiliates with many organizations of women interested in the public welfare. The Council conducts manual training and industrial schools, sewing and household schools, kitchen gardens, kindergartens, mothers' clubs, boys' clubs, circulating libraries, reading rooms, free baths, employment bureaus, milk and ice depots for the poor, crippled children's classes and many other philanthropies.
During the Spanish-American War the Council contributed about $10,000 in money and goods, and in several cities was the first organization to undertake this relief work. It has sixty-three sections in various States and 6,000 members. Mrs. Hannah G. Solomon has been president continuously.
The Women'S National Indian Association was organized in March, 1879, for the civilization, education, enfranchisement and Christianization of the native Indians of the United States; the first society devoted exclusively to Indian advancement, to ask and labor for all these; to demand from the Government lands in severalty, citizenship, industrial teaching and education for the aborigines (1881), and these were granted in the passage of the Dawes Severalty Bill in February, 1887.
Besides its important work politically, beginning a movement which has gained 60,000 Indian citizens, at least 25,000 of whom pay taxes and 10,000 of whom voted at the last elections, it has opened directly or indirectly Christian, educational and industrial instruction at forty-seven stations, or in as many tribes; has builded many Indian homes, starting civilized industries in these and in tribes, furnishing agricultural implements, sewing machines, looms, stock, etc., from a loan fund of $12,000. It has various other departments of help for red men — schools, libraries, temperance teaching, etc. — and has expended in all these (besides sending missionary boxes of supplies for the aged and helpless into seventy tribes) from $15,000 to $28,000 annually. It has now a House of Industries where women and girls are taught sewing, knitting, weaving, etc. Altogether forty-one buildings have been erected.
The Association has nearly 100 branches in between thirty and forty States and Territories and has several thousand members. Mrs. Amelia Stone Quinton was general secretary from the beginning for eight years, and has since been president continuously.
The National League of Women Workers was organized April 29, 1897, in the interest of working women and their clubs. It is intended that the League shall stand as a central bureau of information, offering counsel and help when sought, but not placing restrictions upon any club. It has issued various publications, a monthly magazine, The Club Worker, a collection of songs, one of practical talks, another of plays and of entertainments; also a pamphlet entitled How to Start a Club. It has made a collection of all publications issued by the various auxiliary State associations and clubs, which are distributed free of charge to members. Between 8,000 and 9,000 publications are annually sold and distributed. The secretary each year visits from fifty to one hundred clubs to acquaint them with the work of other similar organizations. The League has collected data relating to the management of lunch clubs, vacation houses and co-operative homes for working women.
It is made up of five associations, and includes 100 clubs in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with a membership of over 8,000.
The National Christian League for the Promotion of Social Purity was organized in New York in October, 1885, and a national charter was obtained in 1889. Its object is to elevate opinion respecting the nature and claims of morality, with its equal obligation upon men and women, and to secure a practical recognition of its precepts on the part of the individual, the family and the nation; to organize the efforts of Christians in preventive, educational, reformatory and legislative effort in the interest of Social Purity. It uses every righteous means to free women and girls from financial dependence upon men, not only by seeking to raise the status of domestic service, but by teaching the advantages of self-support in every kind of legitimate business. During the past six years the League has secured employment directly for 3,300 applicants; it has supplied temporal and social benefits.to thousands of distressed women; furnished more than 5,000,000 pages of literature helpful to all the people; prevented and stopped immoral shows and impure exhibitions; clothed the naked, fed the hungry and housed the shelterless.
The League has Hospital Auxiliaries, Social Culture Clubs, Industrial Homes with training for Italians and other foreigners; members in nearly every State and Territory — in Europe, China, Japan, India and South America. It was founded by Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis, who has been its president continuously.
The Young Ladies' National Mutual Improvement Association was organized at Salt Lake City in June, 1869. Associations were formed in different States, and these were gradually grouped into "stake" or county societies, each one presided over by a president and her board of workers. On June 19, 1880, an organization of these "stakes" was effected and a general president elected. The object is mutual improvement for all, in spiritual, mental and physical conditions.
It is an educational association and has bettered the condition of thousands of girls, leading them toward the light, cultivating unselfishness, a love of humanity, and a desire to help the world; it has given to all its members a deeper, truer, purer education than they could otherwise have obtained. While not strictly a beneficiary organization, it disburses several thousand dollars a year. It owns considerable property, including houses and libraries.
The association has 507 branches and 22,000 members in ten States and Territories and a number of foreign countries. Mrs. Elmina Shepard Taylor has been president since 1878.
The National Kindergarten Union was organized in July, 1892, to unite kindergarten interests; to promote the establishment of kindergartens, and to elevate the standard of their training and teaching. It has instituted more friendly relations between kindergartners, bringing together the conservative and radical elements upon a common platform. A broader conception of the principles of Froebel and their relation to education in general has been promoted, thus enlarging the scope of the kindergarten idea and widening its influence. There are at present seventy branches with 6,000 members.
The Woman's Prison Association and Isaac T. Hopper Home was organized by Mr. Hopper in 1845 in New York and incorporated in 1854. It was afterwards sustained for many years by his daughter, Mrs. Abby Hopper Gibbons. Its object is the amelioration of the condition of women prisoners, the improvement of prison discipline and the government of prisons in respect to women; also the support and encouragement of women convicts after their release. The association has secured in New York the searching of women prisoners by women; a law requiring police matrons; one providing a Reformatory for Women and Girls, and others of like import. The Home is in a large measure self-supporting. From this first organization a number of similar ones have been established and the condition of women prisoners has been much improved.
The National Household Economic Association was organized in March, 1893, to promote a scientific knowledge of the care of children, and of the economic and hygienic value of food, fuel and clothing; to inculcate an intelligent knowledge of sanitary conditions in the home, and to urge the recognition of housekeeping as a business or trade which is worthy of highest thought and effort. This was the first organization to present Household Economics in a comprehensive form as an important and profound science. The existence of home departments in nearly every woman’s club may be directly or indirectly traced to its influence. From Maine to California women have received from it broader and better views of home and home life. It has vice-presidents in twenty-nine States.
The National Woman’s Keeley Rescue League was organized Sept. 18, 1893, to restore the victim of inebriety and drugs to health and happiness and to aid the unfortunate inebriate to become a self-supporting citizen instead of an object of charity; to visit the families of inebriates and by every means possible aid them to a higher and better life. It has brought sunshine and happiness into more than one thousand desolate homes, and enabled the heads of these homes to become self-supporting. Husbands and wives who have been driven asunder by the curse of drink have been reunited. Thousands of children who would have been thrown upon the world or into charitable institutions have been saved and are now cared for in well-provided homes. Many a family has been kept from becoming a charge upon charity, and the current of many a human life has been turned in wholesome channels.
The League pays for a man’s treatment at the time he enters a Keeley Institute, taking his note (properly secured by the indorsement of some friend, when possible), and requiring him to pay back in monthly installments or as his circumstances will permit. This creates a revolving fund to be used over and over again. It has its friendly visitors looking after the family while he is taking the treatment and endeavors to have employment for him upon his return. Men who have been sent to the work-house repeatedly have been permanently reclaimed. The League has eighteen branches and 650 members.
The National Federation of Musical Clubs was organized January, 1898, to bring into communication the various musical societies that they may compare methods of work and become mutually helpful; and to arrange in different sections of the country Biennial Musical Festivals. It works for the musical life of the nation by creating a musical atmosphere, studying composers and their works and bringing the best talent in various lines to interpret and illustrate these studies. Large, strong clubs have been helpful in sending their members to those smaller in numbers and weaker financially. Two Musical Festivals have been held, national in character, one in St. Louis in May, 1899, the other in Cleveland in May, 1901, with every possible artistic advantage of the highest talent. There are branches in thirty-two States and Canada; 160 clubs are federated with 12,000 members.
The Needlework Guild Of America was organized April, 1885, to collect new garments and distribute them to hospitals, homes and other charities, and to extend its usefulness by the organization of branches. It has distributed to hospitals, homes and other charities in the United States about 2,500,000 new garments. This includes the results of two or three special collections for national disasters. It has 308 branches in this country.
RELIGIOUS:
The Woman’s Foreign Ninety Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized March 23, 1869. Its object is to engage and unite the efforts of Christian women in sending missionaries to the women in foreign mission fields of the church and in supporting them and the native Christian teachers, and all forms of work carried on by the society. It has collected and disbursed $5,454,700; sent to foreign fields 365 missionaries, and established a great educational work for women throughout the Orient. The first woman’s college in Asia, at Lucknow, India, was founded by this society. It sent the first fully equipped medical woman to the mission fields of the East, and built the first hospitals for women in India, China and Korea. Nineteen hospitals and dispensaries are supported by the society, and 246 missionaries in Africa, Burmah, Bulgaria, China, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, South America and the Philippines, while twenty-four medical women are now in the field. There are 18,000 girls and women in its various schools.
The society has eleven branches, covering the whole United States, 5,410 auxiliaries, and 171,765 members. Mrs. Cyrus D. Foss is president.
The Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the M. E. Church was organized July 10, 1880, to enlist and organize the efforts of Christian women in behalf of the needy and destitute women and children of all sections of the United States, without distinction of race, and to co-operate with the other societies and agencies of the church in educational and missionary work. The total receipts from July, 1880, to July, 1900, were $2,782,773; total value of property, $736,152. This property consists of twenty industrial homes and schools, six mission homes, two immigrant homes, three children’s homes, six centers of city mission work, five deaconess and missionary training schools, twenty-eight deaconess homes, four rest homes for deaconesses and missionaries.
The Society has eighty-nine conferences, 2,500 auxiliary societies, 59,000 adult members and 13,500 children. The Deaconess Department was established in 1888. There are now (1901) 1,160 deaconesses with $1,600,000 invested in real estate connected with their work. Mrs. Clinton D. Fisk is president.
The Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Protestant Church was organized Feb. 14, 1879, to bring the heathen to Christ. It has established schools, built churches and done a valuable work especially among girls. It has twenty branches and about 3,000 members. Mrs. F. A. Brown of Cardington, O., is serving her twenty-first year as president.
The Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society was organized April 3, 1871. The leading object is the Christianization of women in foreign lands by furnishing support through the American Baptist Missionary Union to Christian women employed by said Union as missionaries, native teachers or Bible readers, together. with the facilities needed for their work. Its missionaries have been sent to Burmah, Assam, India, China, Japan and Africa. The home constituency is found in the Baptist churches of the New England and Middle Atlantic States.
The total number of American missionaries supported for a longer or shorter time is 142. Of these seventy-eight are now connected with the society, 112 native Bible women employed as visitors in homes, and 367 boarding and day schools with more than 14,000 pupils are maintained. Many women who have been taught in these schools are exerting a strong influence as Christian wives, mothers and teachers. The medical missionaries have cared for souls and bodies alike. One of these doctors reports 17,000 treatments at her dispensary during the last year. Large sums of money have also been expended for mission work of various kinds under the care of the wives of missionaries. The total amount raised and expended in thirty years is over $2,000,000.
There are numerous auxiliary circles, including about 34,000 women, besides 10,000 younger women organized in guilds.
The Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West was organized May 9, 1871, for the elevation and Christianization of the women of foreign lands by furnishing support to Christian women employed as missionaries, to native teachers and to Bible women, together with the facilities needed for their work. It supports 177 schools, 5.337 pupils, 159 teachers and 94 Bible women. In the medical department it has two hospitals, two dispensaries, twenty medical students and three helpers; 597 patients were treated in the hospitals during the past year and 6,130 outside patients. The amount raised since organization is $885,279, and 105 missionaries have been sent out. There are 1,530 auxiliaries.
The Woman's Baptist Home Mission Society was organized Feb. 1, 1877, to aid in spreading the gospel and to Christianize homes by means of house-to-house visitation and by missions and schools with special reference to exceptional populations in the United States, and among neighboring countries. The missionary training school was organized Sept. 5, 1881, and located at the headquarters of the society, now in Chicago. The same year records the first issue of the monthly organ, Tidings, which has grown from a four-page circular to a thirty-two-page magazine, with a monthly circulation of 13,500 copies. The training school has enrolled 518 students. The Society supports also two training schools for negro workers — Shaw University, Raleigh, N. C., and the Caroline Bishop School in Dallas, Texas. It has employed on its own fields 159 missionaries among foreign populations in this country from Europe, Indians, Negroes, Chinese, Syrians (from Asia), Mexicans, Cubans, Porto Ricans and Americans.
The missionaries report, for the year, besides work along many other lines, 80,635 visits in homes. During the twenty-four years the visits reported aggregate 1,152,950, and from the headquarters of the Society have gone 6,478,544 pages of literature. The total cash receipts have been $1,034,104. Besides providing for its own distinctive work, the Society has aided the American Baptist Home Missionary Society from 1882 until 1901 to an extent represented by a total of $91,288.
Figures have a certain value, but the best fruit is seen in the results of the work of the missionaries on the fields, through the visits in homes, women's meetings, children's meetings, industrial schools, parents' conferences, Bible bands, fireside schools, training classes, and the circulation of pure, wholesome literature. Through this womanly ministry uncounted lives have been transformed and a multitude of abodes have become Christian homes. There are 2,807 auxiliaries and about 60,000 members.
The Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society was organized Nov. 14, 1878, for-the evangelization of the women among the freed people, the heathen, immigrants and the new settlements of the West, and for evangelizing and educating the women and children in any part of North America. The amount raised during the last year was $38,000; fifty-seven teachers, missionaries and Bible women are supported among colored people, Indians, Mexicans, Mormons, Chinese, Alaskans and French Catholics.
The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society was organized June 12, 1873, to conduct home and foreign missions, This is believed to be the only Woman's Missionary Society (with possibly the exception of the Christian and the Friends') which from the beginning has been entirely independent and not an auxiliary organization. It has furnished eleven women missionaries for India, one of whom is a professor in the Theological School and two are physicians, and supports a large number of schools, many native and Bible women and extensive zenana work. Besides this it aids all 'other women missionaries of its denominational conference board by annual appropriations for their local work among women and children at the various stations occupied by Free Baptists. The Rhode Island Kindergarten Hall, the Widows' Home and the Sinclair Orphanage, all located at Benares, province of Orissa, India, are the property of this society.
Its home missionary work is connected with Storer College, Harper's Ferry, W. Va., to which it has furnished thirteen teachers, besides contributing largely to the erection and equipment of two of the main buildings. Its receipts have been about $200,000. It has a permanent fund of about $42,000.
The society has twenty-five State organizations, others in Canada and India, with between 8,000 and 9,000 members.
The Woman’s Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions of the Southwest was organized at St. Louis in April, 1877; origin- ally to create and foster a practical and intelligent interest in the spiritual condition of women and children in our own land and in heathen lands. Since the close of its fourteenth year its work has been for foreign missions only, being one of the seven woman's auxiliaries to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America. It has given to the cause of missions $249,618, and has had missionaries, as teachers or physicians, in India, China, Japan, Korea, Siam, Persia and South America. The record of their work has been of a nature sufficiently encouraging to warrant continued and larger support. The Board has 605 branches or auxiliary societies and 13,776 members.
The Woman'S Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church was organized in December, 1878, to establish and main- tain Christian schools among those near home. It has eleven sta- tions in Alaska, eighteen among the Indians, twenty-seven among the Mexicans, thirty-one among the Mormons, forty among the mountaineers, six among the foreigners in this country, five among the Porto Ricans, making a total of 138, with 425 missionaries and teachers and 9,337 pupils.
The Board has secured to the Presbyterian church $750,000 worth of property and has expended about $3,500,000 since organization. Two magazines are published, the Home Mission Monthly, and Over Sea and Land for the young, the latter jointly with the For- eign Societies. It has about 5,000 auxiliary societies with about 100,000 members.
The Christian Woman’s Board of Missions was organized Oct. 22, 1874, to maintain preachers and teachers for religious in- struction; to encourage and cultivate a missionary spirit and ef- fort in the churches; to disseminate missionary intelligence and se- cure systematic contributions for such purposes; to establish and maintain schools for the education of both sexes.
Fields: The United States, Jamaica, India, Mexico and Porto Rico. Work: University Bible lectureships, Michigan, Virginia, Kansas, Calcutta, India; eighteen schools, four orphanage schools, two kindergartens, four orphanages with 500 children, one Chinese mission, one hospital, three dispensaries, one leper mission, thirty mission stations outside the United States; 135 missionaries, be- sides native teachers, evangelists, Bible women and other helpers; $900,000 raised during twenty-six years; income last year, $106,- 728. Its publications are Missionary Tidings, circulation 13,500; Junior Builders, same circulation; leaflets, calendars, manuals, song books, etc. Property values: United States, $120,000; India, $60,300; Jamaica, $38,550; Porto Rico, $10,000; total, $229,650; amount of endowment funds, $85,000.
This is purely a woman's organization; funds are raised and disbursed, fields entered and work outlined and managed without connection with any "parent board," although relations with other organizations of the church are most cordial. There are thirty-six State organizations, 1,750 auxiliaries, forty-five young ladies' circles, 374 mission bands, 1,711 junior societies of Christian Endeavor, 177 intermediate societies and 40,000 members of auxiliaries.
The Woman's State Home Missionary Organization of the Congregational Church represents a slow but steady growth during the past thirty years. Branches exist now in forty-two States and Territories. The last report available, that of 1897, showed $100,768 collected that year and disbursed for the usual home missionary purposes.
The Woman's Centenary Association of the Universalist Church was organized in 1869 to assist weak parishes, foster Sunday-schools, help educate women students for the ministry, endow professorships in schools and colleges, relieve the wants of sick or disabled preachers, ministers' widows and orphans, distribute denominational literature, and do both home and foreign missionary work. Since its organization it has raised and disbursed over $300,000 and has a permanent fund of $20,500, the interest of which is annually expended for the purposes for which the association was organized. Millions of pages of denominational literature have been distributed. The association has ten State societies and 100 mission (local) circles.
The National Alliance of Unitarian and Other Liberal Christian Women was organized in 1890. Its objects are primarily to quicken the religious life of Unitarian churches and to bring the women into closer acquaintance, co-operation and fellowship; to promote local organizations of women for missionary and denominational work and to bring the same into association; to collect and disseminate information regarding all matters of interest to the church, viz.: needs of local societies, facilities for meeting them, work to be done, collection and distribution of money, etc.
The Alliance takes part in the missionary work of the denomination, assisting small churches and starting new ones; supports one or more students each year at the Meadville Theological School and maintains several circuit ministers. It has lending and traveling libraries and libraries for ministers, and has established and maintained three permanent ones in places where there was no free library. Through its well-known Post Office Mission it distributes annually about 300,000 sermons and tracts, and through its Cheerful Letter Exchange an untold amount of miscellaneous literature. Money is not disbursed from a central treasury, but is given by the branches which are independent in such matters, an Executive Board making recommendations. The expenditures of the past ten years have been $419,757. The Alliance has 255 branches-and nearly 11,000 members.
The Woman's Missionary Association of the United Brethren In Christ was organized Oct. 21, 1875, to engage and unite the efforts of women in sending missionaries into all the world; to support these and other laborers in mission fields, and to secure by gift, bequest and otherwise the funds necessary for these purposes. Valuable missionary work is being done in West Africa, China and the Philippines. The association in the last twenty-five years has raised $311,920. It has forty branches and 13,232 members.
The Woman's Foreign Union of Friends was organized May, 1890, to increase the efficiency for spreading the Gospel of Christ among the heathen, and to create an additional bond between the women of the American Yearly Meetings. It has been the instrumentality of greatly quickening the missionary zeal and activity in the denomination. It established missions in Japan, China, India and in unoccupied parts of Mexico, and rendered valuable assistance in planting missions in Alaska, Jamaica and Palestine. It founded and has successfully managed the Friends' Missionary Advocate. During the past ten years $300,000 have been raised and expended. It has ten branches and 4,000 members.
The Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the General Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the U. S. A. was organized in 1879. Its object is to cultivate a missionary spirit, to create a deeper interest in the spread of the Gospel, to disseminate missionary intelligence, and to engage and unite the efforts of Christian women in the Lutheran church in supporting missions and missionaries on home and foreign fields, in co-operation with the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions and Church Extension. In the Foreign field it is now supporting eight women missionaries in India, two of whom are physicians and one a trained nurse. The principal station is Guntur, Madras Presidency. In Africa it is supporting two women missionaries at Muhlenberg, Liberia. In the Home field it has helped support eighteen missions and build churches for twelve of them. The amount contributed by the societies for the year ending March 31, 1902, was $27,286.
The Society has twenty-two Synodical Societies, 760 auxiliaries and 20,452 members, active and honorary and cradle roll, besides 489 life members.
The Woman's Missionary Society of the General Synod Of The Reformed Church was organized in 1887, to aid in the advancement of the work of Christian Missions in Home and Foreign Lands. Individual societies had existed for ten years previous. The last report available is that of 1893, when 144 societies were reported and $10,000 collected during the year. One-third was expended for foreign and two-thirds for home missions. The society has published an official organ, the Woman's Journal, since 1894. Women also belong and contribute to the general missionary societies of the church.
The International Board of Women's and Young Women's Christian Associations had its beginning in 1871, when thirty of these associations affiliated for biennial conferences. Later they organized as the International Board which became incorporated. Its object is to unite in one central organization these bodies of the United States, Canada and other countries, and to promote the forming of similar ones, to advance the mental, moral, temporal and above all the spiritual welfare of young women.
The Ladies' Christian Union of New York, organized in 1858, was the first work in this country for the welfare of young business women. A home was the imperative need of the friendless young women employed in cities then as it is now, since the small wages received make possible for them only the poorest quarters amid demoralizing conditions. These Christian Women opened a house and took into it as many as they could reach, giving clean rooms, wholesome food, cheap rent, pure moral atmosphere and religious influences. From this developed the Young Women's Christian Association.
The federated associations now own property valued at over $5,000,000. In the evolution of this work the Boarding Homes, now accommodating over 3,000 at one time, have been supplemented as the need arose. The Traveler's Aid Department seeks to reach the young, ignorant girls before the agents of evil who haunt the railroad stations and steamer landings. During I9g00 over 10,000 were thus protected. The Employment Bureau during this year assisted over 20,000 applicants. The Educational Department, with day and evening classes, has 15,000 enrolled. There are Recreation Departments, Vacation Homes and many other important features. Every phase of the life of a girl or woman is touched by the association. Religion in its broad sense is its fundamental and guiding principle.
Twenty-three States are represented in sixty associations in the United States and Canada, with over 20,000 voting and contributing members, over 500,000 associate members — self-supporting girls and women — and 2,500 junior members.
The Woman's National Sabbath Alliance was organized in 1895, to educate the women of America to an intelligent appreciation of the relation of this one day in seven to the national life, and to emphasize woman's responsibility and influence, especially in the -home and in society. The work is along educational lines — in creating public sentiment in favor of better Sabbath observance. While placing a wedge in every tiny opening, its members have prayed, protested, proclaimed and practiced. Through this organization Christian women have become more fearless in standing for their convictions. The Alliance has twenty-two branches and over 1,000 members.
PATRIOTIC:
The Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic, was organized July 25, 1883. Its object is specially to aid and assist the Grand Army of the Republic and to perpetuate the memory of its heroic dead; to assist such Union veterans as need help and protection, and to extend needful aid to their widows and orphans; to cherish and emulate the deeds of army nurses and of all loyal women who rendered loving service to the country in her hour of peril; to maintain true allegiance to the United States of America; to inculcate lessons of patriotism and love of country among children and in the communities; to encourage the spread of universal liberty and equal rights to all.
General legislation is enacted by the annual national convention, the supreme authority; States are governed by department conventions. The association has educated women in an exact system of reports and returns. There are no "benefits," as it is strictly philanthropic. It supports a National Relief Corps Home for dependent army nurses and relatives of veterans; has secured pension legislation from the general Government for destitute army nurses; has influenced State legislation in the founding of homes for Union veterans and their dependent ones in Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, California, New York and Kansas; has led to the establishment of industrial education in the Ohio Orphans' Home; has been foremost in financial aid in every national calamity; has unitedly furthered patriotic teaching in schools and the flag in school rooms; and has raised and expended for relief in the eighteen years of its existence, $2,500,000. The corps has thirty-five departments, 3,174 subordinate corps and 142,760 members.
The Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic were organized Jan. 12, 1886, to assist the G. A. R., encourage them in their noble work of charity, extend needful aid to members in sickness and distress and look after the Soldiers' Homes and the Homes of Soldiers' Widows and Orphans; to obtain proper situations for the children when they leave the homes; to watch the schools and see that children are properly instructed in the history of our country and in patriotism; to honor the memory of those fallen and to perpetuate and keep forever sacred Memorial Day. Its departments and circles have spent for relief $16,685 and given to the G. A. R. $2,658; to the Soldiers' Homes, $364; Soldiers' Widows' Homes, $1,461; Soldiers' Orphans' Homes, $179.
The organization has twenty-three departments and 28,070 members — mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, granddaughters and nieces of soldiers and sailors who served honorably in the Civil War.
The National Alliance of the Daughters of Veterans of the U. S. A. was organized and chartered in 1885, to perpetuate the memories of the fathers and brothers, their loyalty to the Union and their unselfish sacrifices for its perpetuity: to aid them and their widows and orphans, when helpless and in distress; to inculcate a love of country and patriotism among women; to promote equal rights and universal liberty, and to acquire, by donation or otherwise, all necessary property and funds to carry out the aforesaid objects; to assist the G. A. R. to commemorate the deeds of their fallen comrades on the 30th of May.
The Alliance is composed of daughters and granddaughters of the Northern soldiers who fought in the Civil War, 1861-1865, and has a sufficient membership to assure the soldiers that their memory will ever be preserved and their widows and orphans will not want. Over $2,000 are spent yearly for relief. The value of donations other than money is nearly double that amount. It has assisted in obtaining pensions, erected monuments for unknown dead, furnished rooms in Soldiers' and Soldiers' Widows' Homes, furnished transportation for helpless soldiers, presented flags and banners, brightened sickrooms with flowers and cheerful faces. At present it is interested in the erection of Lincoln Memorial University at Mason City, Ia., where one building is to be known as the Daughters of Veterans' Building. There are "tents" scattered all over the Union and many State Departments.
The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union was organized in 1853. Its purpose was the purchase and preservation of the home and tomb of General Washington with 200 acres of land. The sum of $200,000 was raised by voluntary contributions from the women of the United States.
The Regent is elected by the Council and is a life officer. Mrs. Justine V. R. Townsend of New York is serving at present. The Regent appoints, and the council at its annual meeting ratifies by votes, one lady in each State as vice-regent to represent the State. The association is purely patriotic. The great annual increase of both home and foreign visitors is gratifying, and testifies to the loving veneration in which the memory of Washington is held. The entrance fee of twenty-five cents is sufficient to keep the home and grounds in perfect colonial order.
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was organized Aug. 9, 1890, to perpetuate the memory of the spirit of the men and women who achieved American Independence, by the acquisition and protection of historic spots and the erection of monuments; by the encouragement of historical research in relation to the Revolution, and the publication of its results; by the preservation of documents and relics, and of the records of the individual services of Revolutionary soldiers and patriots, and by the promotion of celebrations of all patriotic anniversaries; to carry out the injunction of Washington in his farewell address to the American people, "to promote, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge;' to cherish, maintain and extend the institutions of American freedom, to foster true patriotism and love of country, and to aid in securing for mankind all the blessings of liberty. .
The society has carried out its desired objects; brought together the women of the North and South; caused many of them to study the constitution of their country and parliamentary law; rescued from oblivion the memory of many heroic women of the Revolution; examined and certified to the 1,000 nurses sent by the Surgeon General's office to the Spanish-American War; raised $300,000 in money and sent 56,000 garments to the hospitals during that war; contributed $85,000 for a Memorial Hall in Washington, D. C. It has organized children's societies and taught them love for the flag and all it means; made foreign-born children realize what it is to be American citizens; offered medals and scholarships for historical essays by pupils in schools and colleges; helped erect the monuments to Lafayette and Washington in Paris. By requiring careful investigation of claims to membership the society has caused many families to become re-united who had been separated by immigration to remote parts of the country, and has stimulated a proper pride of birth — not descent from royalty and nobility but from men and women who did their duty in their generation and left their descendants the priceless heritage of pure homes and honest government. The society has 600 chapters and over 36,000 members.
The Society of the Daughters of the Revolution was organized Aug. 20, 1891, to perpetuate the patriotic spirit of the men and women who achieved American independence; to commemorate prominent events connected with the War of the Revolution; to collect, publish and preserve the rolls, records and historic documents relating to this period and to encourage the study of the country's history.
Through its State organizations it has marked with tablets historic places; promoted patriotism by gifts of historical pictures to public schools; helped to bring about an observance of Flag Day through the general society; given prizes to various women's colleges for essays on topics connected with the War of the Revolution; raised $5,000 to erect a monument at Valley Forge in memory of Washington's Army. The present work is the establishment of a fund to be loaned in proper sums to girls trying to make their way through college. It has nineteen State societies and 3,200 members.
The Colonial Dames of America were organized in New York City, May 23, 1890, to honor the brave men who in any important service contributed to the achievement of American independence; to collect manuscripts, traditions and relics and to foster a true spirit of patriotism. A hereditary society was deemed the most effective for this purpose. It has made a collection of valuable manuscripts, pedigrees, photographs and books; effected restorations in the old Swedes' Church at Wilmington, placed tablets in Baltimore, to Washington, and in Kingston, N. Y., to Governor Clinton. Historic tableaux have been given in the city of New York, with readings of original papers and lectures by historians. The publication of the "Letters to Washington" from the original manuscripts in the Department of State, has reached its fourth and last volume. For the sick and wounded in the Spanish-American War the society raised about $6,600, with a contribution of hundreds of garments and hospital appliances, and several of its members worked in hospitals and camps.
The society also has its valued social side. It has five chapters in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Paris (France), with about 400 members.
The National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 was organized Jan. 8, 1892. Its object is to publish memoirs of famous women of the United States, especially those of the period included in the eligibility of this society; to urge the Government, through an act of Congress, to compile and publish authentic records of men in military and naval service in the war of 1812, and of those in civil service during the period embraced by this society; to secure and preserve documents of the events for which each State was famous during this period; to promote the erection of a home where the descendants of the brave patriots of this war can be sheltered from the storms of life.
The work done in the various States is as follows: Two tablets, one marking New York City defenses during the war and one for "those who served," in the Post Chapel at West Point; Michigan, a monument to General McComb in the heart of Detroit; Maryland, the restoration of Fort McHenry (the inspiration of The Star Spangled Banner); Louisiana, a monument on the field of Cholnette. Massachusetts has received permission to restore the frigate Constitution and is raising $400,000 for this purpose; Pennsylvania is offering prizes in the public schools for historical work, and many other enterprises are under way. It has nineteen State societies with a membership of 776.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy were organized Sept. 10, 1894. The objects of the society are educational, memorial, literary and benevolent; to collect and preserve material for a truthful history of the, War between the States; to honor the memory of those who fought and those who fell in the service of the Confederacy; to cherish the ties of friendship among the members of the society and to fulfil the duties of sacred charity to the survivors of the war and those dependent upon them. Much aid has been given to aged and indigent Confederate soldiers. There are homes for these soldiers in every Southern State and monuments have been erected to the Confederate dead in nearly every city. The orphans of Confederate soldiers have been educated and cared for, and in a number of States the society has seen that correct and impartial histories are used in the public schools. It has 500 branches and about 25,000 members.
LODGES:
The Supreme Hive Ladies of the Maccabees of the World was organized Oct. I, 1892, to extend the benefits of life protection to women: to unite fraternally the wives, mothers, daughters and sisters of the Knights of the Maccabees, as well as other women who are acceptable; to educate its members socially, morally and intellectually. Four hundred and twenty-five death claims were paid in 1900, amounting to $441,380; and twenty-two disability claims, amounting to $2,400. The total amount paid in claims from organization to Jan. 1, 1901, is $1,523,504.
The organization is composed of one supreme body, three subordinate bodies, known as Great Hives, and 1,835 subordinate or local hives, with a membership of 84,657, of whom 19,321 are social and 65,336 benefit members.
The Supreme Temple Rathbone Sisters of the World was organized Oct. 23, 1888, for promoting the-moral, mental and social conditions of its members; cultivating a spirit of fraternal love which shall permeate and control their daily lives; ministering in all ways to the wants of the sick and needy; watching at the bedside of the dying; paying the last sad tribute of love and respect to the dead, comforting and providing for the widow in her afflictions, and daily exemplifying in every possible way the Golden Rule.
The Supreme Temple has general supervision of the Order throughout the world and makes the general laws. The Grand Temples, or State organizations, supervise the local Temples within their domain. The latter, besides carrying out the principles peculiar to a fraternal society, select some special work for the good of those outside their ranks. Reading rooms have been established, funds donated for public improvements, charity, etc. In order to care for the orphans of Rathbone Sisters a Home is soon to be erected, the fund being already set aside for this purpose. The local Temples care for their own poor and sick. In such disasters as those at Galveston and Jacksonville, the Temples send liberal donations to their members to relieve their financial losses.
The Supreme Temple is composed of twenty-four State organizations and 1,124 local Temples, with a membership of 71,247. Four insurance branches have just been established (1900).
The Order of the Eastern Star was organized in the latter part of the eighteenth century — the exact date is not known. Its founders sought to create a social tie between the families of Masons, but it early reached a higher standard of usefulness. Among its objects are caring for the widow and orphan and assisting the Masonic brother in all deeds of mercy and love. It has founded Eastern Star Homes for widows and orphans of Masons and has become a mighty impetus in the building and support of Masonic Homes. Everywhere its members visit the sick, relieve the distressed and speak words of cheer to the despairing. It has been found helpful all over the land in carrying forward the underlying principles of Masonry. It has taught woman to preside in public meetings and to make herself conversant in parliamentary law. Masonry unites the heads of families, whereas the Eastern Star unites the entire families. Its ritualistic teachings are designed to inculcate morals and to improve the social virtues. The Order comprises 3,491 chapters with a membership of 218,238.
The Daughters of Rebekah were organized in 1851 as a side degree of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and chartered lodges were authorized in 1868. The object is benevolent work. The order stands very high among charitable organizations and pays out thousands of dollars each year for the relief of widows and orphans. The report for the present year shows that 6,212 families were assisted at an expense of $141,046; and $50,540 were paid for the education of orphans. The Indiana lodge erected a monument in Indianapolis to Vice-President of the United States se Colfax, the principal founder of the order.
The Daughters of Rebekah usually exist wherever there is a lodge of the I. O. O. F. Men may take the degree but the affairs of the lodges are entirely in the hands of women. There are 125,300 men and 200,850 women members.
The Grand International Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in the United States, Canada and Mexico, was organized Oct. 16, 1887, to elevate the social standing of railroad people, to promote a fraternal feeling between families of engineers and to render assistance in time of trouble. The Voluntary Relief Association, formed in 1890, has paid to needy families of engineers over $100,000. "It has no home for dependents, but helps widows to keep a home and care for their own children. It secures homes for orphans and assists in their education out of a special standing fund. There are $15,000 in the general fund. The order is exclusively composed of women, who manufacture all supplies and from this source realize a considerable revenue. Study clubs for intellectual culture are maintained in the various branches.
There are 255 subdivisions and about 10,000 members. It was founded by Mrs. W. A. Murdock, who has served continuously as president.
The Ladies' Auxiliary to the Order of Railroad Conductors of America was organized in 1888. The idea originally was merely social, but so many objects claimed assistance that, in 1895, the Fraternal Beneficiary Association was added to help the widows and children of railway conductors. Assessments were levied and in five years $2,200 had been thus applied. Good speakers, parliamentarians and business women have been developed and its members have become broader and more enlightened in every direction. There are 156 local divisions, with a membership of about 4,000
Miscellaneous: Various organizations are in existence which are national in their aims and interests but scarcely have reached national proportions in the number of auxiliaries and membership. Among these may be mentioned the Sociological Society of America, organized in New York in 1883, to disseminate the principles of Social and Industrial Co-operation; The National Women's Republican Association, founded in 1888; the Pro Re Nata, started in Washington in 1889, to perfect its members in the art of extemporaneous speaking; Wimodaughsis, organized in Washington in 1890 for the improvement of women along all educational lines; the Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women; the National Floral Emblem Society, formed at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893, to gain an expression from the people which shall lead to the adoption of a national flower and also the selection of State flowers, which have been chosen in nineteen States and the choice ratified by the Legislature; the National Society of New England Women, founded in New York in 1895, to promote acquaintance among New England women in various localities throughout the country for purposes of mutual helpfulness; the National League of American Pen Women, Started in Washington City in 1896, to band together women journalists, authors and illustrators; the Women's Press Association, organized earlier and with branches in various States; the George Washington Memorial Association, incorporated in 1898, to raise $250,000 toward an Administration Building to be a part of the university as set forth in the will of George Washington — $25,000 of this amount being now on hand and as much more guaranteed; the Woman's League of the George Junior Republic, formed in 1899 to promote interest in the National Republic and establish branches; the National Legislative League, founded in 1900 to obtain for women equality of legal, municipal and industrial rights through action by the National Congress and the State Legislatures; Woman's Educational and Industrial Union; various associations for improving cities and villages by means of parks, shade trees, good streets, sanitary appliances, etc.; and countless others of a social, educational or philanthropic nature.
There are also a number of large national organizations composed of both men and women, with the latter very greatly predominating. Of these the most prominent are the Universal Peace Union, founded in 1866 and chartered in 1888, with forty branches in the United States and sixty in Europe; The Soclety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; the National Consumers' League; the Christian Endeavor Society; the Epworth League; the Young People's Union; the King's Daughters and Sons; the Anti-Vivisection Society.
The above list shows that women are organized for carrying forward practically every department of the world's work, and that their associations have been steadily increasing in number, size and scope during the past half century. In the early years the Woman Suffrage Association not only stood alone in its advocacy of enfranchisement but was regarded with the most strenuous disapproval by all other organizations of women. In, 1881, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, principally through the influence of its president, Miss Frances E. Willard, established a department of franchise, but it was many years afterwards before the idea of the ballot was received with favor by any large number of its members. The sentiment is not now unanimous, but considered as a body there are no more active workers for woman suffrage. The National Council of Women has no platform, but its leaders and also those of the International Council are prominent advocates of the franchise. These are now found in greater or less numbers in all the organizations but not one of them includes the suffrage among the specific objects for which it works. As these broaden the associations frequently find it necessary to appeal to Legislative bodies, and the result is usually a significant lesson in the disadvantage of being without political influence. The Federation of Clubs, organized in 1890, in its endeavor to secure the passage of bills for various purposes, has applied to more Legislatures, during the past few years, than has the Suffrage Association. It is indeed a most interesting study to watch the evolution of the so-called women's clubs. Formed at first merely for a superficial literary culture, they widened by degrees into a study of practical matters related to law and economics. From these it was but a step into civics, where they are to-day, struggling to improve municipal, and in directly national conditions and gradually having revealed to them the narrow limitations of woman's power in public affairs.
With the exception possibly of the church missionary societies and the various lodges, there is not one of these associations of women which does not depend in a greater or less measure on City Councils, State Legislatures or the National Congress for assistance in securing its objects. No other means could be so effective in convincing women that politics, which they have heretofore believed did not directly concern them, in reality touches them at every point. They are learning that the mere personal influence which usually was sufficient to gain their ends in the household, society and the church — the three spheres of action to which they were confined in the past — must be supplemented by political influence now that they have entered the field of public work. Women have been so long flattered by the power which they have possessed over men in social life that they are surprised and bewildered to discover that this is wholly ineffectual when brought to bear upon men in legislative assemblies. They find that it is not sufficient to have personal attractions or family position — not even to be a good wife, mother and worker in church and charities — they must be also constituents. This is a new word which was not in the lexicon of woman in past generations. They investigate and they see that whatever may be the private opinion of these legislators, their public acts are governed by their constituents, and women alone of all classes in the community are not constituents.
This knowledge could come to the average woman only through experience, and that which as an individual she might not get in ages she is gaining rapidly through organization. A summary of the preceding list shows about 2,000,000 women enrolled in the various associations. The number which may be duplicated by a membership in several, is probably balanced by the number in those which do not state the membership. This list includes only national associations and it is reasonable to assume that not more than one-half of the local societies are auxiliary to national bodies. This is known positively to be the case in the General Federation of Clubs, which includes less than half of those in the different States. It would be a decided underestimate to say that 4,000,000 women in the United States are members of one or more organizations, and it is clearly evident that this number is increasing. The scope of these associations is constantly broadening as women themselves are emerging from their narrow environment and seeing the needs of the world in wider perspective. They are slowly but certainly learning to devote their time and energy to larger objects, and they are awakening to a perception, above all else, of the strength that lies in combination, a knowledge which was a sealed book to the isolated and undeveloped women of past generations. No other influence has been so powerful in enabling woman to discover herself and her possibilities.
There will be no more important clement to be reckoned with during the coming years of the new century than these great associations of women, constantly gaining strength and momentum, not alone by the increase of membership but also by its personnel, for now they are beginning to be composed of college graduates, of property owners, of women with business experience. More and more they are directing their attention to public questions, and when brains, wealth, executive ability, enthusiasm and a strong desire for an honest and moral government are thoroughly organized in the effort to obtain it, they must necessarily become a powerful factor in State and national affairs, and one which inevitably will refuse to be held in a disfranchised condition after it shall realize the supreme power which inheres in the suffrage. There is still another and a more important point of view from which this subject should be studied. Here are more than 4,000,000 women, about one-third of all in the country, banded into active, working organizations. The figures given above show that they are raising and expending millions of dollars and every dollar for some worthy object. The list demonstrates beyond question that every one of these great associations exists for the purpose of improving the conditions of society and helping and bettering humanity. They represent the highest form of effort for education, morality, temperance, religion, justice, patriotism and co-operation. Are not these the very qualities most needed in our electorate? Is not the nation suffering because of the lack of them since it has placed the ballot in the hands of ignorance, immorality, intemperance and lawlessness? Does not an emergency exist for a political influence which shall counterbalance these and tip the scale the other way? Can the Government afford much longer to delay the summons for this great, well-organized, finely-equipped force—if it is to perfect and make permanent the institutions of the republic?
- ↑ The National Suffrage Association is not included in the list, as twenty-one chapters of this volume are devoted to its work. It was the intention to give the name of the president of each organization, but as this officer is so frequently changed it seemed best to abandon this plan save in special instances. The figures given are for 1900 with but few exceptions. The church missionary societies not mentioned here, and some other national bodies, were appealed to several times for statistics without response. The list, however, includes all of any considerable size and importance. It did not seem that it would represent the true proportions of these associations if arranged alphabetically or according to date of organization, therefore the editors have used their individual judgment in placing them.