The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-07-07
INTERESTS Of
WOMANK|ND
Federation of W0men's Clubs
and What 1t Has
Done.
advertiser Correspondence, Copyright
by Frederic J. Haskin.)


there are assembled in this city
several thousand earnest, progressive
women ready to discuss ways and means
for the advancement of the nation
along helpful lines, and ready to pledge
their support to every movement that
will initiate toward that end. These
are the delegates from the federated
clubs of forty-six states and territories
representing 5000 clubs with mem
bership of over 100000 women. For
six days the twelve different depart,
ments of the General Federation of Wo-
men IS Clubs will hold sessions in Sym
phony Hall, while overflow meetings
will be accommodated in nearby build
ings.
AS a measure of the progressive spir-
it of American women, all manner of
conveniences will hedge this meeting
branch bank, branch telephone, tele>
graph and post Offices and a hospital
with physicians and nurses will be es>
tablished at headquarters. A historical
significance may be attached to the
selection of Boston as a meeting place,
for there the first women S club meet
ings in this country were held That
was in the days when Anne Hutchin-
son called together her townswomen in
her home, where the Old Corner Book
Store now stands, and discussed with
them the sermon of the preceding Sun
day until, in 1857, the outraged elders
sent her into exile for the sin of too
freely expressing her feminine mind.
This is the ninth biennial of the or,
ganization, and reports in the hands of
expert heads of hard working depart
ments will show that in the eighteen
years of the Federation s existence, as
well as in the decade back of that, the
women of the nation have not ceased
in concerted effort to ameliorate I'M
satisfactory social conditions and to
promote the growth of altruism. One
of the most vital interests of the wo-
men of the Federation is that of abol-
ishing child labor in the factories
mines, mills, workshops and stores
Whether their influence was direct or
indirect, the fact that eighteen states
during the past year have enacted new
laws or improved old ones regarding
child labor has been largely due to the
unfagging zeal of the women s clubs.
Reports will show that within the past
year Florida and Mississippi have pass
ed child labor laws for the first time,
and Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia.
North Carolina, South Carolina and
Alabama have amended those already
on their statute books, while Oklahoma
promises the best of all under her new
constitution.
A Children s Bureau will shortly be
established in Washington, and this is
the result of the work of the women
who constitute the membership of nine
ty-six clubs in and around New York
City. They organized themselves into
child labor association that is ma
tional in it's aims and scope. The
alarming fact was known to them that
of every 1000 babies born in the Uni,
bureau they mean to investigate the
causes of mortality, illegitimacy, or
phanage, dependence and child labor
among the children of the nation. They |
mean to plan campaign against the |
general ignorance prevalent among a |
certain class of mothers and by in |
telligent legislation and training pro |
tect the helpless little ones. 1t has
been pointed out with ironical plain. |
ness that the national government |
through its Department of Agriculture
spends millions annually in the protec
ton of its game, the improvement of |
it's domestic animals and the fostering |
of its animal and plant industries, while |
not penny is expended in the preserv-
alton of child life and in the ameliora-
ton of its conditions. y
The health of the nation is being
largely taken over into the hands of |
its women. Through the influence of
the General Federation of Women g
Clubs a bill was introduced into the
last Congress providing for an educa-
tional campaign against tuberculosis.
women 8 clubs have been fore
most in the work of establishing homes
and camps for tuberculosis patients, a
that is telling in its excellent
results. This is quite far cry from
the conditions of which an English
traveller wrote in 1880: "What they
call consumption kills the Americans
as if they were perpetually in battle;
but they speak of it as if it were in
no way their concern, rather as if God
sent it for some reason of His own. -
The women of today have no such ideas
on the subject They rather accent the