The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1917-06-14
SPEAKS IN HOTEL EDWARD
Sprung from Line of Famous Ancestry,
Mrs. Keller Is Doing Her Bit to Con-
tinue the Work of Her Fathers, the
Preservation of Liberty and Truth.

She came, she saw, she conquered +
is only a weak description of the way
in which Mrs. Inez Rice Keller, former
" of Kenosha and now of New York
City, has captivated the Toronto pub
ic A little woman who does big
things, she has proved to the English
men of the Old Dominion that an
American girl is as efficient as she is
beautiful and that tenderness and sym
pathy can accomplish wonders where
might and militarism fail.
Mrs Keller, a daughter of the late
Samuel Rice of this city, is now en-
ployed by the United States govern
ment as chairman of the committee
which is to arrange the sanitary and
moral conditions in the training camps
Of the state of New York, an appoint
ment which came as a result Of her
prominence and efficiency in the organ
ization of the National League for
Women IS Service in the United States
In her official capacity she is now tour
ing Canada with the hope that an in
vestigation of training camps there
may furnish valuable suggestions for
the improvement of conditions in the
United States she has everywhere
been received with the greatest cour-
tesy and enthusiasm.
Her reception at Toronto where she
talked in the parlors of the King Ed
ward Hotel was especially warm. The
Globe of that city says of her and her
work:
"Gentle and soft-voiced, little
woman who loves blue, for touches Of
it were at the throat and wrists and
turquoises gemmed the pendants which
hung from curiously-w chain,
Mrs. Rice Keller of New York is the
epitome Of womanliness and Of sympa-
thy. So to hear that she is chairman
of the committee which is to arrange
the sanitary and moral conditions of
the training camps in the state Of New
York is to know that the American
Tommy and his officers are to have
prepared for them surroundings that
will make for the good of the entire
man.
Some conception of the seriousness
with which Mrs. Keller approaches her
patriotic and humanitarian work may
be gathered from the following ex-
tracts from her Toronto speech as re-
ported by the Daily News Of that city:
We of the old stock, which forms
such a large part of the United States,
would like to get into the war right
away when it began, and now that we
are in we women want to do tEat which
IS vital and not to waste energy. We
felt that the States must get into the
war and, oh, it was weary waiting, no
one knows how weary, until we finally
were in it. AS soon as we were in, It
seemed to me a great load was lifted
from me and began to breathe
again. y
Mrs. Keller s conceptions of the
present war are strilxingly revealed in
her statements: 1t is the birth of
our young nations and the re-birth of
the oldo and "My sympathy for the
allies has never wavered and I was
praying all the time that we would get
into it before France and England I'm
aided had saved the cause of democracy
and civilization y Nor are her utter
ances to be considered as idle vagaries
Of the theorist. She has seen the war
first hand and consequently speaks
with authority. Her recent experiences
in Europe are well summarized BY the.
Toronto Globe when it says:
Mrs. Keller was in Switzerland, on
her way as delegate from her state, to
the Peace Conference in Vienna. set
for September Is, 1914, when the war
cloud broke, and for three weeks she
worked steadily with the Swiss Red.
Cross equipping the little Swiss army
to repel the invasion which they fear
ed, and before she left the American
women in Montre were supplying TWEEN
ty beds in France. Then she went back
to Rome and was active in the war
work of the American colony, which
sent weekly bales to the French and
British in the trenehes.'
# it is true that blood will tell, =
it is not at all surprising that Mrs.
Keller has distinguished herself in
public service. An ancestor of hers
was mayor Of London in the 10Th cen
tury and another of her progenitors
signed the first Connecticut charter so
famous in the history of that colony.
More modernly a cousin of her moth
er Is, a Mr.. Norman Judd, proposed the
name Of Abraham Lincoln to the Re
publican convention, which nominated
him for the presidency of the United
States, and SO performed conspicuous
service not only for our country but