St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-05
NORTH STAR WOMEN
"A FEDERATION OF TWENTY-FIVE
HUNDRED OF THOSE IN THIS
STATE.
OUTLINE OF THEIR WORK.
"A TALK WITH MISS EVANS, PRESt-
DENT OF THE STATE Or
GANIZATION.
They Are All Doing Much for tn e
Advancement of the Women
of This City.

Miss Margaret J. Evans, president of
Che Minnesota Federation of Women s
Clubs, was recently in the city, and
was interviewed concerning It's work
THE plan of organization for wom-
ans work at the Chicago exposition
fixed the form in the states" said Miss
EVaCs.
OF the benefits to be derived from
federation, she said. 1T promotes NUT
ual acquaintance and Eelpfulness Ex-
actly the same advantage as the indi-
Vldual gains through the local organ
1Zation, that advantage the club gains
through the state. 1t gains enthuSi-
asm, knowledge of methods of dif-
terent clubs. the stimulus to work for
others not in clubs. Each one has the
cumulative force Of all the clubs 1t
comes to each individual"
AS an example of the altruistic work
which the federation seems to help
make a growing characteristic of the
clubs, the president said that at the
annual meeting last October they had
voted to try to establish country clubs
upon a plan similar to the following:
pleasant room is provided for the
women coming in from the country to
do their shopping, with facilities for
resting, plenty of good reading mat
ter, and perhaps provision for lunches.
A club is formed among them, the
meetings to be held once month with
an annual fee of about % cents. The
town women are also to be members
of this club. Some book may be as
signed to all for home reading and the
meetings occupied with the usual read
ing of papers and discussion. This plan
has been carried out at Northfeld, and
the work is to be undertaken at Moor
head and Rochester.
They voted at this anual meeting to
work toward the establishment Of pub
lie libraries The club women of Du-
luth were instrumental in establishing
a free library there, and at st. Peter
the women gave much aid to this
work.
"They also voted" related Miss Ev-
ans, 'to try to influence the legislature
to establish travelling libraries like the
ones in New York, under the direc-
tion of the state library association
'.There is one thing, the art inter-
change among art clubs, that think is
not known in any other state The
Minnesota federation is going to pur-
the history of art Each club pays $40
and has the use Of several hundred
slides. Art books will also be fur
nished."
Village and city improvement has
been given considerable attention by
the clubs of Minnesota. Societies of
children called the "Clean City league, -
are formed and decorated with badges.
They are pledged to do their share
toward keeping the streets of the city
clean.
The most attention is given to literary
work, however, and"the regular literary
work" Miss Evans stated, sis helped
for solid and substantial study by the
federation" and she considers that
"much valuable research is being done
by the clubs of Minnesota" The inf1u-
ence eXerted upon some of the towns
by the Woman's clubs is especially not
iceable.
Clubs devoted to literature, history
art. current events and Greek study
constitute the large proportion of those
belonging to the Minnesota federation
The general federation of women's
clubs has been organized only six years
and was the outgrowth to a great ex-
tent of a need of intercourse between
the different clubs of the country. The
Soross Club Of New York held a gath
ering of clubs on the occasion of its
twenty-first birthday, which resulted ir
the organization of this federation
rThe New England Woman's club and
the Sorosis are among the oldest clubs
in the states. having been organized
within a short time of each other.
Previous to the organization Of this
federation, other means had been at
tempted to bring women into closer re-
]ationship with each other through clut
work without seeming to fulfill the re-
QuirementS. The N. E. w. G. had es.
tablished a committee Of correspond
4, ence. The Sorosis had organized the A
A. w.
The meeting of the first Internationa
Council of Women in 1888 perhaps has
tened the formation of the G.. F. w. c
"A national council was formed, and IL
the absence of a national organization
representative of the literary clubs
the Sorosis was admitted to this coun
Gil. The G. F. w. c., which is r2ally
international in character, not formed
by the branching of an organization
into societies Of exactly the
same name, character and OBJ.
ject, but composed of a union, Of in.
dependent clubs seems to have oDeneo
its doors at least to all women's
clubs that have neither partisan nor sec.
tartan objects 1t occupies a position
nearer the council, perhaps. than othel
associations. It's motto is Unity in Di
versity." The literary type Of some
club is characteristic, however.
The late Mrs Charlotte Emerson
Brown, of the Woman's club.of Orange
n. j., was the first president of the
general federation This has grown un
til at the present time 1t numbers ovel
450 organizations, about seventeen be-
ing state federations, which are a IateI
development.
Through the influence of the genera
federation these state federations are
being formed. 1t was felt that an in
termediate link was needed between
the general federation and the clubs
for it was difficult to deal effectively
with such large number of scattered
societies. But not quite all the state
federationS now in existence have as
yet united with the general federation
and many clubs belong to the genera
federation that have not joined them.
selves to the state federation, an6
many have an independent connection
with each. Eventually they will prob
ably all bear their proper RELATIONSHIP,
to each other
The Minnesota State Federation
which belongs to the general fedora.
ton is still very young. Mrs
Ellen NJ Henrotin president
Of the 6. F. w. c., assisted in the
organization Of this state. which was
completed at meeting held April % Of
, last year The federation began will
fiftsen clubs ag charter members which
number has Increased to fifty, repre-