Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-10-23

Our readers have already been in.
structed and edified by Mrs. George F.
Shears account OF the biennial meet
ing OF the Federation of Colored Won
ems clubs at Wilberforce, o. Miss
iona Gale, her companion, the two, we
believe, making the only white attend
ants. has given her version of the story
in Life and Labor. the organ OF the
Woman's Trade unions. The extracts
from the utterances of those present
found In Miss Gales article are 30
persuasive and inspiring that We glad.
~ lay hold Of them for the benefit OF
Unity readers. The chairman OF the
executive board, Mrs. Mary Talbert OF
Buffalo. among other things, said:
Never in the history Of our race
have our women had SO great pr1vi'
lege as lie granted to US, the privilege
to be and to do what we will, to de-
velop our highest powers. to improve
every opportunity, to satisfy our deep
est longings for educational adSant'
ages. For the women Of our race OF 81
years ago were the common burden
bearers. the common property OF the
horde, refused the privilege OF reading
and writing, forbidden to recognize
their own names when they saw them
in writing. And yet they were trust
ing in God.
ITO my mind comes the first Negro
club woman, Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper, who after the Civil war-or
rather, might say, after our new birth
went up and down the Southland to
the newly liberated slaves, and urged
upon those mothers to start at the IRE
side. In a letter dated Greenville, Ga,
March %. 1870, she writes: Now is
the time for women to begin to try to
lift up their heads and plant the roots
of progress under the hearthstones.
Today the Negro women all over the
country have seen that flower grow,
and it is for US to continue to plant.
This is the field. Now what OF the
cooperation? There can be but one
motive in all our work-the spirit OF
Christian love, the expression of racial
brotherhood. What We have done can
not be measured only by advance, but
by the deterioration which we have
helped to prevent. We know that in
every community there are splendid
women who have not yet seen the
necessity Of lifting as we climb who
have not felt that they could leave
their whist tables to do this work,
and yet they will tell you that they
are in sympathy with what we are try
Ing to do. Nobody can be the friend
OF any class by being the enemy OF
any other class. You can be the friend
OF one class only by Glowing it the
line along which it can accommodate
its work to the best advantage. The
lines Of help are always the lines OF
this accommodation. il firmly believe
that the more We interest our women
OF the favored classes to work with the
women in humber lives the better our
work will be done-this work OF lift
ing an entire Negro manhood and
womanhood into better life.
1T behooves US a. club women to
see that we urge our ministry to coop
crate with VI. Often ministers have
been particularly antagonistic to this
club movement, fearing that it will at.
feet the financial support Of the
church. We sympathize with the feel
ing OF such ministers, for we know
that the average minister does not re-
ceive a living salary, much less a
working salary. But we must educate
them to the fact that the time has
come when they, too, must join with
us in enlarging the work by these or
Plantations of women's clubs. Unity