The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-17
Alaska, Japan, England, Ha- waii and South America to Be Represented Twenty Thousand Delegates Will Meet.

New York, May 1.-The club wo-
 men of the country, two and a half
 million of whom are represented in the
 General Federation of Women's clubs, have perfected a plan for the greatest convention in the history of the Fede- ration in New York this month. The dates are May 22 to June 8. During those seventeen days it is expected that fully 20, 900 women representing clubs in every state in the union, well as some from Alaska, Japan, England, Hawaii and South America will attend many of the innumerabIe meetings and social functions that have been arrang- ed.
 New York City this year is said to
 have more than 500 different 5conven- tions on it's calendar but from all in dications none will equal in attend ance the gathering. of women. Spe- cial sentiment is attached to the wo- mems convention by the fact that all though the Federation was founded
 here twenty-six years ago, it is the
 first time since then that the women
 have met in New York. It was lien nie June'' Croly, one of the founders of the Sorosis, the pioneer woman S club in this country, who initiated the idea of a general convention of wo- mems clubs in 1889, and the outcome of this was the holding of the first con F New Y ork in the following year when 63 clubs were represented by 126 dele ga te.s and the Sorosis was hostess. / Chicago, Philadelphia, Louisville, Denver, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, St. Louis, St. Paul, Boston, Cincinnati,
 San Francisco and Chicago again, have been the convention cities in the order named. The forthcoming con vention, the thirteenth, will have So- rosis again as it's hostess, in cOnjunc- tion with the New York State and City
 Federations which are working their hardest to make the gathering a mo- table one in every directiOn-
 The main drill hall of the Armory of the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard, which will ac- commodate upwards of 5000 women,
 will be the principal meeting place.
 The Co1onel's room and other officers
 quarters will be turned over to the gWo-
 men for headquarters The Armory
 is located at 66th street, occupying an
 entire block between Lexington and Park avenues.
 The chief executive is Mrs. Percy " Pennypacker, the president of the Fed eration, whose home is in Austin, Tex, but who for the past two years has been travelling throughout the country keeping in personal contact with the activities of women's clubs. She will not be a candidate for reelection this wear. however, and the question of her successor will be one of the most in1portant items of business during the convention The two candidates for the offices are Mrs. Samuel B. Sheath, of TifHn O., and Mrs. Josiah Evans Cowles of Los Angeles. The Ohio is at present first Vice-Pres- ident of the Federation, and is a club woman of wide experience ' Mrs Cowles, whose name has been put for ward by the Californian women. has been prominently identified with the Federation several years as director. treasurer, and chairman Of various committees.
 In the words of Miss Lutie E. Stearns, one of the directors of the Federation, ''tIle business of being a club woman is a big business and is getting to be a, bigger business every day'' This is apparent from the eiab- crate program that has been arranged for the convention. The topics ind1- cate an increasingly wide range of af- fairs in which the club women are ta- king not only an interest but an active part There was a time, for instance, when the New York City Federation of Women's Clubs could report on all of it's activities at each convention, but
 now, says Ms. Eugene J. Grant, the
 president of the city Federation, It takes the six conventions of an admin
 istra ton to get through the reports
 of the thirty-eight committees when
 have developed.
 broad object the furtherance of ev-
 cry movement in the interest of wom-
 en, children and mankind in general