The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1907-10-18
CLUB WOMEN IN
CONVENTION HERE
Organization the Key to Success--Lendng Aid
In Many States---Schooled for Anything
That Comes--Heresy Flourishes
Best on Opposition

Club Women! Club Work! Mod
ern phrases not much understood by
our rural selves. To men and womer
who have lived on the ragged edge
of civilization, and known of you on
ly thru story and song, who know
more of the camp fire than the draw.
ing room, who have had only glimp.
ses of large cities and passed thru the
big towns along the way in the night
your name calls to mind the stories
of fashionable social functions ON the
fourth floor, where finely dressed Ia
dies and gentlemen emerge from a
cage that glides thru the ceilings like
spectre.
And now you come among US,
alive,-the real thing,-and we lift
our hats to you thru the feeling Of
universal brotherhood.
We are surprised to learn that you
too, possess the mettle of pioneers,
and that your state president is Ida
no born, and is the owner or half
owner with her husband, of herds
on thousand hills" and buys stock
in Scotland and Continental Europe
to improve their herds in the Gem
State. This introduces a bond of in
terest, for we know that you too,
love the smell of the camp fire, as
we'll as the ease of drawing room,
and in looking further among you,
we reconize pillars of the frontier, of
territorial days, ripe in judgement
and familiar with the events of Ida
no since the rise of the curtain Of
Statehood. Among you are others
from the schools and colleges Of the
East, from The Great Prairies, and
from newer schools where the west
ern billows kiss the sunset.
We may know but little of your
purposes and your work, but where
there is earnest effort, there must be
noble purposes, If it lasts. If your
work is to study the conditions con-
fronting society,-the plain honest
working people who form the back
bone of the social fabric and the
state, with a view of changing condi-
tions of today to something better
for tomorrow, and interesting those
who receive benefits tomorrow, to
help improve conditions for them
selves and many others for the day
following, then your work is most
commendable. UNIFORMED spectators
of the morning may become your CO.
workers at noontide. We wantto be
shown, and reasoned with; we even
want to be solicited and coaxed, to
do that which is for our own welfare
even more than yours.
If we venture a statement as to
the principles you follow in your
work, we shall say:
Such associations as you represent,
have kept finger on the pulse of
our expanding social fabric, our sis
terhood of states as they unrolled
westward, while we assumed new re-
sponsibilities in The Eastern Seas,
The Greater Antilles and the land of
the Midnight Sun, and have kept in
close touch with the people and their
needs. Was there crop failure in
Kansas? Your sisters In the rich cit
les and states Of the east poured out
their treasure before the day was
done; took from their wardrobes the
warm clothes they would have worn
again, and all the second-best suits
and clothing Of the other members
Of the family, and hurried them pre-
paid to the great plains, to be dealt
out by the sister clubs or organiza-
tions, where most needed.
Were soldiers suffering in the cy-
press swamps? Woman's clubs sent
them the things they seemed most in |
need of, and sent brave hearts to fol- !
low in the wake of conflicting armies |
to nurse the wounded soldiers back |
to life.
Were school books needed in The
Dakotas where the sale of crops
would scarcely pay the taxes on team
and improvements of the settlers?
They sent carloads to them pre-
paid, and men who shape the des-
TIMES of states, now look back to the
helping hand of women who were or
ganized and federated. prepared to
detect the symtoms, and apply the
before the disease appeared.
Did deadly fever appear in the
Sunny South They responded TO
the call for help,a and when t. seemed
the country would be depopulated,
they touched elbows with physicians