The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-10-07
MRS. POTTER PALMER.
Her Wonderful Executive Ability
Revealed by Worlds Fair.
Caroline Kirkland in Ainslee's.O

81
when Mrs. Potter Palmer was I'M
unanimously elected president of the
I board, she had never presided - a meet
/ ing of any kline in her life. She was
/ utterly inexperienced in managing bodies
4 of women The Board of Women Man
ayers was new Departure collection
/ OF untried women in a fresh field without
! either precedent, definite direction OBJ
| ject, and, further, it was a gathering of
many different kinds Of women with
{ widely varying aims and views. To weld
/ this chaotic, mass into an harmonious
/ whole, to turn 1t along a path OF credit
to the board and to the country at large,
was a task to try a woman of the widest
executive experience.
In the months succeeding the first
gathering Of the board of women man
ayers, Mrs. Palmer thought out for the
board policy to be pursued and OBJ
jective point to be reached. on the one
hand, the suffragists, the temperance ad-
Vooates ana every woman or body OF
women with a hobby We're ciamOring for
recognition and help On the other hand
the large mass of INDECENT female work
erS yearned to fill the WOmens s build
ing with crazy quilts and statues made
out of butter With delicate tirmneSS
Mrs. Potter put all these offers of assist
ance and contributions on one side and
steered her ship and crew through shoals
and past reefs to the safe harbOr. She
organized her great, unwieldly board into
a splendid working body, which, scattered
over the land to north, south, east and
west, carried its work and mission into
the farthermOSt corners OF this great
country, and interested every woman in
every community in the aims and objects
of the board Each commissioner who
crossed the seas TO tell the rest OF the
world what we were preparing here took
with him a special commission from Mrs
Palmer.
.'On one occasion, Mrs. Palmer. by APP
DOintment, met at dinner eight or ten OF
these commissioners TO foreign parts. To
each she gave an especial task, instruct
ing each one clearly how 10 go about il.
and showing herself entirely familiar
with the subject. Each found that his
commission -neceSSitated close and ex-
haustive study to arrive at Mrs. Palmer
knowledge OF it and to accomplish what
she desired. Day and night she tOiled TO
enable herself TO direct intelligentiy the
good-sized army of workers which looked
to her for leadership. Mr.. Palmer says
that frequently in those times he would
wake in the late hours of the night and
find his wife sitting up and making notes
or writing letters by the light beside her
bed And this was the woman who a few
other life than that of a society woman
in a luxurious home. life that gave lit
tie scope to her ambition, will power and
executive ability But the ambition was
not for herself, but for that which she
had undertaken Never did the leader of
a great enterprise direct it so unostenta-
Decentralization Now. here you will
say that l am wrong. that all the acclaim
and fame which have come to Mrs. Pal
mer would be incense to any noStrilS.
True; and Mrs. Palmer appreciates we'll
earned recognition and praise as much
as any one Yet the notoriety that IS
the breath of life to mdny a WOman-and
TO many a man, alSo-in public life, and
and articles in newspapers and period
icals and in a minute journalistic record
of daily comings and goings. is not only
not sought by her, but Is so distasteful
that 1t is exceedingly difficult for a
zvouId-be biOgrapher OF her TO find even
/ the barest outline Of her life in print. q