The Irish standard., 1908-11-07
kate BARNARD AND
HER INFLUENCE
A Young Catholic Woman
Who is Noted Politician
and Philanthropist.
Has Achieved Distinction as
a Campaign Orator in
her Adopted State.

!; Everybody in Oklahoma calls her
Kate" If the stranger from the East
asks a'citizen Of Guthrie where Miss
Barnard's office is, a puzzled express
sion will first appear, then the diff
flculty will be relieved as he replies:
"Oh. you mean Kate" For Kate Bar
nard is Oklalloma's first citizen.
She was born in Nebraska twenty
seven years ago, of Southern parent
age. But the mother died at the
daughters birth, and the little girls
life was one of hardship and poverty.
At first cared for by her relatives, she
was later put on the 100 acres Of Okla
homa land which her father had claim
ed to hold the homestead while he
made a living in the nearby city.
/ Later she was sent to a convent,
then taught in the public schools, and
with the building up of the family for
1 tune in that land OF opportunity, she
went to Oklahoma City, to keep house
for her father. A devout Catholic, she
frequently brought to her father-con
fessors the ambition she had Of wider
service, but was as often met with the
old-fashioned advice, generally the
best that can be given, that her place
was that of housekeeper in her fa-
ther's home. She made an applica-
tion to be put in charge of the exhibit
Which the thriving young city of Ok
lahoma was to make at the st. Louis
exposition, and was given the ap-
pointment over $50 competitors. At
st. Louis she attracted, the attention
OF other exhibitors; and received flat
tering offers to do similar work at the
! Portland exposition. 6
But she received the sage advice
from a. newspaper man, who had some
knowledge of the world, that there vas
room for an unexampled career of USE
fitness in oklahoma City and terri
ltory. He advised her to gather some
Of her girl friends about her as the
nucleus of a charity organization. and
find first. some employment for tn.
hutedEeds :of stranded people: who had
,,foxndt their way to :the newly opened
lands and newly-built cities Of Okla.
homa. She took this advice. and after
rlaking some Investigations into the
conditions of the unemployed. she
wrote one vivid statement for tie
newspapers that, brought to her ooors
, in one day ten thousand garments ard
stacks of furniture. She found 400
children, many of them living in tents.
all Of them destitute, and she clothed
them and shod them and bought books
tor them and packed them. off to school.
Fer success stirred the city, and 1t
recognized her capacity at once. Tho
Provident Association of business men
and the Ministerial Alliance had been
doing charity work, Independently, in
a desultory fashion. They came to-
' &c ther in the United Provident Asso-
citation. elected Kate n,atron, and pro-
vided an income of 5000 a month FOR
her disbursement. t= :.
But she went at the business scien-
tifically. The unemployed, the mer,
without a trade were organized into a
Federal Union, and thus, while. finding
work for 400 men, she became indenti-
fled with the American Federation Of
Labor. She was given a seat in the
Trade Council of the city and was
made delegate to the State Fedora
tion of Labor.
While natron of the association she
became the controlling spirit in the
political life of Oklahoma City. She
was the only one who could vote the
slums Independently of the saloon,
and. il need be. against the saloon
Hello. boys. where are you going":
she would say to a group of barroom
buns, towed to the polls by saloon-
keeper. And while the saloonkeeper
/, looked hopelessiy 'oh, she would re-
mind them that she had sent Johns
little girl to school and had nursed
Toms wife through the spell Of pneu-
monia, and had found q decent suit sc
clothes for Jim, and had gotten work
for them all; in. fact, had helped to
raise the wage scale for work on the
streets from $1.25 to 1925 day. And
then she would tell the boys that they
must vote against the bad candidate
for mayor and for. the good one, be.
cause the good one was a friend OF
hers. and the boys would follow her
n,eekly to the ballot box. Thus she
elected first Republican mayor, and
then Democratic mayor, each time
by a majority of 700. ...
And now she began to take an inter-
eSt IN the affairs ~ the new state thav