The age-herald., 1899-10-08
A CONFERENCE OF THE REGENTS
To Be Held in November-The Week in Society and Other News of h. terest-Autumpa Fete at
 Alabama's Capital
BY ANNIE KENpRIoK WALKER


 Wishing to present the State Fair from the womans point of view solely, and es- pecially the progress that has been made in regard to the position now occupied by woman in comparison to that of past fairs, when woman's work was even then so important a part, I interviewed Mrs. French, the secretary of the woman's board, upon the subject, which is one of great interest to the Alabama women who are working wuth such enthusiasm for the success of the fair. To the question as to whether the position occupied by the women connected with this fair differed in any respect from that of the average fair of preceding years, and in other states, she said she thought it did in a great degree.
 That it had been customary to put the women in charge of a department which generally included the culinary and textile work only, while at this fair not only had the art and loan exhibits been put in the care of women, but board had been form ed and great deal of executive work un- dertaken by this board. Instead of trust ing to general advertising to interest the women of the state in the fair, appoint ments had been made of prominent women throughout the state as associate vice-pre- idents, and each probate judge had been asked to appoint an active, intelligent wo- man from his county to be on the womans board Thus individual interest has been eXerted and the women feeling themselves recognized as factors in the organization of the working forces of their respective counties, will, take more pleasure in the efforts they must put forth to interest the people than they otherwise would.
 "The womans board,' she continued, "has a press committee that has under taken to advertise the woman's work for the fair in all the weekly papers Of the state; a transportation committee that will look after freight, express and passes. This board has conceived the plan of hav- ing some intellectual exercises connected with the fair and the congress will be great attraction to the more cultured peo- ple of the state who visit Birmingham at that tme
 By the way" said the secretary, "a- propo of the congress, MT. Ulman, presi- dent of the board of education, came up to me on the street today and said he wished to congratulate me on having ob- tained Miss Farmers consent to come to the congress.
 He heard Miss Farmer at Nashville dur ing the exposition and he was delighted, not only with what she had to say, but her manner of saying it.
 He considered that Birmingham had achieved a notoriety in securing Miss Farmer as one of the speakers for the leaguers. What is most beautiful about Miss Farmer, added Mrs. French Is her total lack of self-consciousness. She is broad. liberal and progressive in her views, but never aggressive or self-assertive. She 1, sympathetc and tender but never weak or sentimental, but you will see her TOT yourself and will then recognize that l have not overdrawn the picture. To the question as to what would be the good to fror tho the reply was. ''The stimulation of thought. I am op- posed" said Mrs. French, ito calling this a woman's congress. I would prefer slmpy the but some of our ladies prefer the qualifying word congress- We have too much of the woman question and the man question: we want more of the humanity question. That which Is good for hu- manity is good for both men and women. "Yes," she continued. "our object in having this congress Is to stimulate thought con- cerning vital and practical questions such as education. civies, philanthrophy, econo- mics etc. The economic condition of women is far from being what it should be and her necessities forcing her to cheapen her labor. this acts disastrously on the price of mans labor in many markets Another one of the problems that needs to be solved is that of domestic service. In fact, the whole of domestic subject is need ing investigation by the home makers. Times are changing rapidly and past methods must be changed to suit them. Agitate. agitate, agitate, is the watchword of the time and We might well adopt some such word as a motto for this congress-"
 In continuing, the secretary expressed the hope that the committee might succeed in getting Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Stetson to come to the congress "She can make more ideas spring up in the mind in a half hour than almost any other speaker ever heard"
 In response to the question to whether the women proposed to do any work towards getting funds for the Wo- mans building during the fair the reply was: "Yes, indeed. Some of us believe the outcome of the fair. as far as the wo- men are concerned will be the Alabama Woman's building. We want it to be a home for every woman in the state,