The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-06-26
OFFICIAL ORGAN OF STATE FEDERATION
OF IDAHO.
Edited by Mrs. Byrd Trego. Of Blackfoot

tioH Hciu ilS dHHuol HCCIh5 vi way
9Th.
In giving her report, the retiring
president, Mrs. Main, referred to the
possibilities of the future of the fed
Grafton of clubs in the District. She
said, in part: THE great cry of the
day is the betterment of mankind
physically, morally, and spiritually
and to what nobler purpose can club
women devote their enegies? That
branch of our civics committee which
has taken for it's work the education
of the masses in hygiene, with the
specific purpose of staying the raw
ages of the great white plague, Is do
ing royal service, and will save thou
sands of lives-lives of fathers, the
bread winners of the family, of moth
ers, the care-takers of the future gen.
erations. Even Washington, with its
cumbersome governmental machinery
has cleaned out some of it's worst al
leys, but there is still much to be
done along the line with our large
negro population, which is especially
liable to consumption. Cleanliness
is contagious, as well as disease, and
very good seed sown will bear blessed
fruit. This is illustrated by Jacob
Riis' story of entire families being
transformed by Towering plant
brought to sick child by home
missionary. 1T had to have light,
and window pane that was black
was secured clean. Whereupon,, it so
shemed the others that general
washday was decreed at once. When
the unwonted light, streaming in,
shone upon the dirt, disorder, and
desolation of that wretched home, it
just had to be set TO rights. With the
sight of it transformed, new courage
came to brighten the life of the moth
er, and that day began the upward
trend of her home and all that it
held. The slum had been beaten
in the home" The great temperance
movement that is sweeping the coun-
try is largely due to club women,
whose work alone in many cities has
carried the mo license law" to tri-
umph, and, when we read that IL
cense has been granted to open a
saloon directly opposite our business
high school, it is high time for the
club women of Washington to bestir
themselves. The child labor law, jul
venile court, and the punishment of
parents who are held responsible for
the offences committed by their chill
dren, the compulsory education law
and the growing work of patriotic
education among the children of for
eigners, are all along the same lines. )"
y
A cycle of time is marked in the
Woman's Club calendar by Bien-
NAL, and June this year brings with
it the Ninth Biennial Meeting of the
General Federation, the hostess clubs
and Boston, the hostes city, are all in
readiness for this great gathering of
American Club Women. The local
plans are completed and the board
of directors. the standing committees
the State Federations and individual
club women all are on the qui vive
ready to do their part towards max
ing the meeting useful, inspiring
and memorable one. The formative
and experimental period of the life
of the Federation is passed and the
shaping into harmonious form is now
taking place. This organization is
firmly rooted into Americas life to-
day and 1t now rests with the Ameri-
can club woman to shape, to prune
and to train 1t as it grows along lines
Of beauty, usefulness and truth.
Each woman present at this COM
ing Biennial will receive some one or
more definite impression, which must
influence her life in gerater or less
degree and each one will also carry
to this meeting an influence of her
own. The ideal of the Federation is
its motto Unity in diversity" and
this ideal for the whole is only at
tainable through the individual. With
intellectual eagerness women from
the north, south, east and west have
pledged their allegiance to this club
ideal, with moral fervor they must
now guard themselves to attain 1t.
The keenly intellectual life stimu-
lates the club into being, the stead
fast, heightened moral character
holds it together and wins it's
achievements. These great biennial
gatherings of women are mysterious
lOICt anu WHetneT one taxes part IN
them or Is merely an onlooker one
must feel their influence on the
thought and life or our day. Their
ideal is to stress womans effort for
the highest and best in the artistic
civic, literary and philanthropic life
of our nation and they are a great
factor in creating public opinion and
presenting to the world in concrete
form the ideals, endeavors and
achievements of the average Ameri-
can woman en- masse. This striving
after the higher and better among
all classes of American women IS the
hope and the promise OF American
life today and cold and unsym the
tic indeed must be those hearts and
minds who do not respond to this
great impulse and are not willing in
a measure to cooperate with 1t for
the love of the race and the nation
I. I. i.