The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-09-30
THE RELIEF CORPS
News and Gossip Of the Great
Auxiliary.

Call to Loyal women-Time for Increased
Effort and Enthusiasm-Neetingo of Nation
al Council OF women-An Along the Line.
National President Sarah J. Martin. in first
General Orders after assuming tho duties II
her office. urges every member OF the WI u
to pledge herself anew to the work NJ the Ord IT,
that many Corps may be organized and the
membership increased in all. Tho strength OF
this appeal is in the following:
There are thousands Of loyal women in
our land who need but the invitation to add
their names to our rolls. The fields are white
to the harvest Shall We gather the sheaves?"
There are. indeed, thousands and tens OF
thousands of loyal women of America who are
eligible to membership in the Woman's Relief
Corps because Of their loyalty, and yet who
have not membership in our great organiza-
ton. These women must come in We need
them and they need US. The Woman's Relief
Corps cannot discharge their full duties to the
Union soldier until they arc part of us.
When the Woman's Relief Corps was organ.
lied as an auxiliary to the Grand Army, the
status of women who were not akin to the
Union soldiers was accepted and established by
the veterans themselves. The very FIRST lines
of the preamble to the Rules and Regulations
state this The aims aud objects OF the
Woman's Relief Corps clearly set forth,
showing that the loyal woman who has not q
single relative among Union soldiers has the
same right to III en- bershipin the Wonan's Relief
Corps the same right to render the Union soldier
aid and assistance the same right to put herself
in position where she can receive the bes. patri-
otto inspiration for herself AID her children,
as has the woman who was the wife of q Union
soldier from the beginning of the war to the
close, or the woman whose father was soldier
SLAIN OIL tine field of battle And asserting
these rights, she has the full sanction and en-
81 oil h. tba
Union blue.
The meaning of the root word of auxiliary
is TO increase, and so the Woman's Relief
Corps the auxiliary Of the Grand Army of the
Republic, was formed to extend and increase
the beneficent work inaugurafed by the Union
soldiers. In every place where this auxiliary
ship has been properly interpreted, and the 10y
al women have found their way into the ranks
Of the Woman's Relief Corps. there has been
effective, enthusiastic, vital work done on be-
half of the old veterans, and erievous loads
have been lifted from their shoulders.
If members OF the Relief Corps everywhere
will respond to the appeal of the National
President and enlist their friends and neigh
bors. and the young girls particularly, in their
respective communities, they may add i'm
mensely, not only to numbers, but to the vital
working forces OF the Woman's Relief Corps.
The Wonan's Relief Corps have put the
thoughts in motion that have set the whole
Nation to solving the problem Of better citi-
zenship and more unsslfsh devotion to the
flag. They must follow this up until an abstract
thought has become q vital principle. and uni
versal liberty and equal rights shall be some
thing more than high-sounding aud euphone-
Gus phrase.
Welcome the loyal women, mothers of homes
and teachers of schools-potent factors in
ehurshes and societies and States. The Grand
Army, men who saved the flag, have Entrusted
it largely to Relief Corps keeping.
MEMORIAL OF E. FLORENCE BARKER.
Past Commander.in- Chief Paul Vandervoort
was visiting Commander in Chief A. &. Weis.
sert, of Milwaukee. whom together they read
of the death Of Past National President E.
Florence Barker. Gen. Vandsrvoort being
tho only honorary life member of the Woman's
Relief Corps from the Grand Army of the
Republic, desires to place on record his tribute
to her memory. his chief agent in the iorma-
ton of the Woman's Relief Corps. He writes !:
my Acquaintance with Mrs. Barker COM
menced when / visited the Woman's Relief
Corps. Department. of Massachusetts. in tho
Winter OF 1882. She was the Department
President, and / was the FIRST Commander-in-
Chief to officially visit a session Of the