The History of Woman Suffrage Volume IV Part 144

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 cla.s.ses; 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 s.e.xes, 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, const.i.tutional 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 const.i.tution of Maine, and in preserving the prohibitory law of Vermont. It has secured 20,000,000 signatures and attestations, including 7,000,000 on the Polyglot Pet.i.tion 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 a.s.sociation protests against the legalizing of all crimes, especially those of prost.i.tution 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 Pet.i.tion 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 Publis.h.i.+ng a.s.sociation 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 members.h.i.+p 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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 Was.h.i.+ngton, 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, housefurnis.h.i.+ngs 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 princ.i.p.al founder and has been its president continuously.

THE a.s.sOCIATION OF COLLEGIATE ALUMNAE was organized January 14, 1882; incorporated by special act of the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature, April 20, 1899, to unite the alumnae of different inst.i.tutions for practical educational work.

From 1890 to 1901 the a.s.sociation gave fourteen $500 European fellows.h.i.+ps (sharing two others) and ten $300 American fellows.h.i.+ps.

Among those holding the fellows.h.i.+ps 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 Gottingen 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 Gottingen and Heidelberg Universities.

The character of the work accomplished by those holding fellows.h.i.+ps made it possible for the a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation 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 Members.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sociation 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 fellows.h.i.+ps for graduate study open to women in this country, together with a list of the undergraduate scholars.h.i.+ps 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 a.s.sociation is carried on largely by standing committees which are under the leaders.h.i.+p 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 secretary-treasurer, 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 a.s.sociation has twenty-five branches and 3,000 members.

THE a.s.sOCIATION 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 members.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sociation 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, a.s.sistance 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 princ.i.p.al object is to eliminate the child from the factory and then to educate it. The Civic work has ranged from Health Protective a.s.sociations 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 a.s.sOCIATION 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 cla.s.ses 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. Was.h.i.+ngton and an a.s.sistant in each State.

The a.s.sociation has 125 branches in twenty-six States and over 8,000 members.

THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS held its first public convention at Was.h.i.+ngton 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 inst.i.tutions; have taken the city fathers to task wherever laws pertaining to the cleanliness and health of a community are not enforced; have called ma.s.s 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 members.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sist 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 SUNs.h.i.+NE 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.