The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-27
Woman and Society
Continued from Third Page.)
MRS. COTTON AT DIES MONIES.

MRS. COTTON AT DIES MONIES.
The Mothers Congress is in session at
Des Moines, Iowa. 1t is largely attended
by representative women from every
part of the Republic. On the opening day,
Mrs. Cotton of North Carolina, one CT
the most, accomplished women the South
has Produced was selected to make the
response to the address of welcome on
behalf of the South. She made an elo-
quent address that was warmly applauded.
In the course of her response, Mrs. Cot
ton said:
Motherhood is indeed the browning
glory of womanhood, but the highest func-
ton of motherhood is to perfect, not
simply to reproduce. There is not much
glory in simply perpetuating either a
condition or a race. All nature lnstlnc-
lively and involuntarily does this, but the
duty inherent in the perpetuatlon OF the
human race is to make progress toward
perfection. This is evolution, which will
be wonderfully quickened when trained
and conscious motherhood as one woman
has wisely said discovers the lens which
will focus all a woman's power on her
motherhood
Progress does not mean swift change,
nor rapid advance; it means permanent
Improvement. The general principles CT
progress are universal and unchanging
and these principles applied to mother
hood and sanctified by aspiration will
bring improvement to the race. Aspira-
ton is the dream of higher things, evolu-
tion is the realization of that dream
believe it is possible, in time and patient
striving, for humanity to realize all its
aspirations. BE We perfect said Christ
but it was left to us to find through
prayerful longing the way to become so
and he would not have given us an I'M
attanable ideal.
Partnership with God is most solemn
and holy and wonderful obligation, for all
power is His and it is well for the world
that women are awakening to realiza-
ton of their responsibilities as the active
execution of Gods design.
The message ! bring you from the
South is one of love, and hope. and sister
ly greeting. The South has been truly
called the land of large families, and
whether in the home of leisure or of la
Dor the family life is recognized as pre-
eminent, and encouraged in its fullest de-
velopment. Not that all it's homes are
ideal--I wish it were so-there and every
where-but chiyalrous manhood there
holds a high estimate of women, and a
high ideal of motherhood prevails where
she is acknowledged as supreme. The
mother-work will find strong and devoted
advocates in the South, when it becomes
known there in its far reaching posi-
bilities.
1T has been said to me that the South
is the home of unprogressve women, or
the cid woman as she is often called.
But the dignity of motherhood is immor-
tai and the claim to distinction which the
old woman can establish is that she was
the mother of the new woman, and
motherlille prepared the earth for the
pleasure and welfare of her daughter.
What more can any mother-even the So
called new mother--do? Like the daught-
ers let us honor the womanliness which
characterized the mothers of the past
for their ideals were the same as ours
happy homes and well cared for families
and they will rejoice with us if we find
a safer wiser way to reach that end"