The courier., 1902-04-12

~
rectors' meetings. The subject will be
discussed with more or less feeling. and
each delegate who expects to go should
endeavor to discover the opinion held
by the majority Of the club she will
represent. Owing to the peculiar ret
icence still exhibited by club men,
bers in regard to publicly expressing
an opinion before a vote is taken, this
information is somewhat difficult to
obtain, and a personal canvass is not
often convenient. But after a formal
vote is taken and announced it is quite
easy for q close observer to discover
the opinions Of each indiiduaL And as
that is all the delegate desires to
know, the means are immaterial.
1t is not the old subject of slavery,
the heroic attitude of the Massachu-
setts club members and their insistence
upon teaching their southern sisters
Hberality and catholicity to the con-
trary. 1t is a question of expediency,
Mrs. Robert Burdette, while travelling
in the south, met Bishop Grant who
was on his way by invitation to the
White house to confer with President
Roosevelt. She asked him the Ques-
ton: "Can the white club women bet
ter serve the women of your race by
bringing them into their organiza-
tion?" The bishop answered: Madam,
as it always benefits the lower to as
sociate with the higher, it would GER
tainly help our colOred women to come
into the association Of white women;
but the question the white club women
have to decide is how they can best
serve womankind at large. Can they
best do this by turning the back on the
white club women Of the south, VINO
need the national organization In their
DEVELOPMENT, and extending the hand
to the colored women, or by holding on
to the southern white women and con-
tinuing to help, as in the past the
co,ored women?" That is the issue
which presents itself at this stage.
This is the point. The bishop is right.
It is not a question of emancipation.
Are the few hundred colored women
who would come into the federation
worth the thousands of white women
who would resign and organize feder-
at;op of their own south of Mason and
Dixon's line?
Under such circumstances the soutn
would be represented in the federation
only by colored women and the friend-
sbips and interests which have begun
to unite the north and the south by q
stronger bond than the constitution
would be torn asunder. Other interests
and friendships would doubtless form
again but the south would then nave
reason to suspect the sincerity and
warmth of our friendship. The coiored
women have repeatedly said that they
did not care to belong to the white
woman's clubs. Urged by the strenu-
ously insistent women of Massachu-
setts, enough colored women have been
induced to appeal for membership In
the general federation to make it likely
that the meeting in Los Angeles Will
be an occasion for violent discussion
between the champions of admission
and it's opponents. Triumph for the
proponents would be empty. 1t would
be followed by the secession of the
southern states and the federation
would be crippled in numbers and in
potential service, the greatest and
most important phase of which Is the
Of acquaintance and SYM
pathy between the different parts Of
this republic.
After the last meeting of the fedora
tion at Milwaukee where the burning