The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-26
REPORTS OF DEPARTMENTS
MRS. KATE WALLER BARRETT ON
THE SOCIAL EVIL QUESTION,
On SOciety's Duty to Scarlet Women.
and on the Reclamation of Sis
tiers Who Have Fallen.

features were an ADDRESS by the president,
Mrs May Wright Sewall, of Indianapolis,
report from Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis,
of New York, the president of the National
Christian League for the Promotion of So
cial Purity, and talks on the Florence Crit
tendon mission movement, the work of the
National Christian Temperance Union total
abstinence and societys duty to the scarlet
women. Mrs. Sewall said:
THE stirring events OF the last six
months have been SO emphasized on public
opinion that they seem to have occupied
the entire year. The din of war is wont
so to deafen the public ear that the quiet
activities of a war period are to it inaudi-
bic. There can have been no time when
war did not involve the women of countries
engaged in it; for even before women had
any participation in public affairs, the wars
that drew men from their homes increased
as their industrial activity was augmented
perforce by the very events which made the
greatest drafts upon their hearts.
From revolutionary days the women of
our country have been conspicuous for their
interest in public affairs. Pioneer life has
always had the advantage of uniting men
and women more closely in their lives and
in their interests. Our country is still so
young that in many parts of 1t all of the
conditions Of pioneer life still exist. That
the conditions of pioneer life effect In time
Of peace is effected for the most settled
forms of civilized society by war. The af
lection, the intelligence. the patriotism of
can army to Cuba and Porto Rico and have
been with the navy to the Philippines.
TWO NOBLE WOMEN.
cat no period of stress in our country's
histormy have the public services of Amer
lean women in various fields been so con-
spicuous as during the past six months.
The services of Miss Helen Gould in PEE
cuniary gifts, or Clara Barton with the sign
of the Red Cross, of the hundreds of nurses
who have Stunned no danger of climate
and no discomfort of camp, of the women
war correspondents who, let it be hoped
have contributed no yellow pages to the
journals of the day, only conspicously il
luStrate the various ways in which hun
dreds of thousands Of women have, on
smaller scale, contributed to their coun-
try'S strength
''Retter perhaps than the services of those
who have given gold, tender ministration
and accurate information, is the service of
those who, while rejoicing in every manfes-
tation of strength and magnanimity made
by Our country have still dared to hold be-
fore the public mind, during both the period
of active war and the period of triumph
which follows its victories, the ideals OF
hEmanitarianism, of Christianity and of
peace.
be averted the National Council, respond
ing to the well-known desire of President
Mckinley to know the feeling of the people,
and to the numerous petitions that went
out from brave and loyal men and women
from all over the country, its petition
representing the desire of over
million women to avoid war if
possible. That no one desired to avert the
catastrophe more than President Mckinney,
his whole course of conduct showed; that
he was grateful to those who attempted
to hold the public mind calm and to AFFORD
time for diplomatic Intervention. ms re.
Spouse to such petitions amply proves. 1t
may well be believed that from the day
that war was declared those who have tried
We're ost the
magnanimity constantly shown by our CHEZ
executive, the humanity manifested by our
generals. and the heroism demonstrated on
land and sea by our countrymen.
NEW PROBLEMS.
1.-The results of the war have brought our
government face to face with problems that
were not foreseen by any. To the solution
of these problems the women of the United
States are bound to contribute, at least so
much as is implied in an intelligent study
Of them and an effort at comprehension. 1t
must not be forgotten that the degree to
which women participate in affairs every
where involves corresponding response
bility. At the bar, in the pulpit. in the
teachers desk, on the public rostrum, In
the ambush of the editorial sanctum in the
columns of the daily press and in the pages
of the monthly magazine, women may IN
conscience, diffuse a sense of responsibility
and create an atmosphere of sanity.
Three most important standing commit
tees have been added during the past year
to our groups of committee workers. The
committee on social peace and international
arbitration. with the Countess Cora Slocomb
di Brazil at it's head. The sudden call to
arms but served to emphasize the need OF
this committee, and TO show that such
committee should long ago have been or
ganized and been active in the diffusion OF
it's doctrines. The committee on social
purity. with Rev Anna Garlin Spencer at
a. T1,< FORM finF1 nf ffa0
is a declaration that the National Council
of Women of the United States Is
committed to that doctrine OF the common
moral standard for men and women, so
forcibly expressed in the well-known
phrase a white life for two The COM
mittee of domestic relations under the law
whose chairman is Miss Octavia Williams
Bates, of Detroit. Tt has for its specific
work such codification of the laws bear
ing upon domestic life as will show the con-
tradiction existing among our States. and
the manner in which these contradictions
work injustice to individuals and evil to the
During the year but one national organi-
zation of women has entered the council
ranks-the Rathbone Sisters-the second of
the great orders that have come in. the
Ladies of the MaccabeeS being the other
one The growth through the multiplica-
ton of local councils is not less important
The largest form during the year is that at
New Orleans. which already includes in its
membership ia local organizations. Sue
cessful initiative has been taken in organi
Among the organizations that for the first
time send fraternal delegates to our ses-
Sions are the Congress of Mothers and the
George Washington Memorial Association.
During the past year the fraternal relations
with Canada. which have from the begin
ming of council work been foStefed liz the
two countries, have been emphasized.
FUTURE OF THE NATION.
"In these days we are continually hearing
of the new role which the United States is
to play among the nations of the earth.
We are told that it will no longer do for
the United tSates to hold itself in isolation
from the rest of the world that whether
she wishes it or not the Nation is destined
to assume a place which will compel all
other nations to reckon with her in the
prosecution of any project they may devise
Those of us who truly believe that per-
feet social peace would make either civil
or foreign %ar impossible must still re-
joce in every good that seems to nave re-
suited from the recent war. III ny II our
country shall be lifted out OF selfish ma
terialsm which has engrosseh and isolated
il into sense of it's permanent relationship
with all the other nations or the earth. this
must be accounted a great good. But we
believe ii is its happy destiny TO prove its
relationship to the nations OF the world and
It's consciousness of its kinship. not by be-
coming terror because of its invincible
navy. its invuinerable ships and its UNI
matched sodiery, but rather because of its
sense of human equality, which is the In
evitable outcome of true sense OF human
kinship.