Evening star., 1927-04-18

",
Upon the opening Of this Thirty
sixth Continental Congress of the
Daughters OF the American Revolu-
ton, to which 1t is my proud pleasure
to bid you all--members and friends
welcome, it is not my purpose to make
an entirely formal address.
Rather do / prefer to transmit to
YOU the ideas that / have CLEANED and
the deductions that | have made after
my first year of intimate contact with
the membership of this society.
Your reactions will be helpful and
stimulating, and / trust that later on
you will not hesitate to express your
selves with freedom and candor, for
such expression is vital and necessary
to the conduct of our affairs.
"a wise French statesman once said,
I must follow them because / am
their leader Well did he know the
exhilaration that comes from the CO.
ordination of the mass mind and the
great accomplishments of the cohesive
body. Without that unity and without
the sympathy that creates it and keeps
it alive, nothing substantial or far
reaching can be accomplished by the
individual who happens for the mo-
ment to be top in command
Like Sensitive Plant.
During these past months have
oftened likened our splendid organlza'
ton to sensitive plant. A soft breath,
a gentle touch and the delicate green
leaves of the plant quiver and close.
The realization of an immediate need
the call to an obvious duty-~the
quiet demand for an avowel of loyalty
all such bring a response from our
membership that is instantaneous.
STEADY growth indicates a, healthy
state of being, and with growth comes
increasing responsibilities. They seem
to be facing us at the moment too, for
the whole world appears to be in a
state of emergence, standing with un-
certain feet upon the threshold Of a
new era.
There is a confusion of issues,
which too often bewilders the sane
mind: there are siren calls of distress,
which if needed spell disaster on the
pitiess rocks, there are well directed
sandstorms which would Bind the eye
of keen vision and render it impotent;
there are fine, impregnable fortresses
which are being sacrificed through the
finesse of strategy.
Must Meet Conditions.
Call it what you will--noonday
war, generalization or underdevelop.
ment Of the spiritual and the mental,
or the deliberate machiations of idol
wreckers-the conditions are here and
they must be met.
1.-THE task need not be such diff
cult one, for we have only to bring
ourselves to realize that it is merely
a question of the degree to which we
are willing to hark back to fundamen-
tails. If the individual and the group
have probed their own soundness and
have no fears, the steps of emergence
will be straight and true.
Turn back the pages of history
century and a half, when few in
trepid men were the authors OF re-
markable document document that
won for them and for their country
the freedom they so earnestly sought.
Then. as now, the greatness of new
occasions taught the responsibilities OF
newer duties, and they went step
farther and assembled a still larger
group, who produced another docu-
ment which securely established that
well earned freedom.
Endured Storm and Stress.
'Those fundamentals We're unques-
tionably sound, for they endured the
y
Gus development of a new country,
and the establishment and stabiliza-
ton of the best form Of Government
the world has ever known.
Now another century is we'll under
way, and those of us whose lives lie
within it's final boundaries have
sacred charge to keep. We lent no aid
to the work of creating, but we are
enjoying the splendid fruits of that
creation. Our inheritance must be
taxed by faith and loyalty and just
conception of duty.
"It is my belief that in this task
women can function intelligently and
effectively, not as individuals alone,
but as great organized bodies
"My optimism is not sufficient to
lead me to think that immediate and
sweeping reforms will be effected and
the world forthwith purged of error
and fallacy through the efforts of
any one group or combined groups or
women. but it is high time we tested
our wings.
Legend of India.
'In India there is a legend to the
effect that the young musk deer,
browsing peacefully in the jungle, is
suddenly startled by a strangely
sweet, enticing odor. Believing it to
be waited from afar upon the soft
winds of the morning, he starts forth
within mad pursuit. Stronger and
stronger grows the elusive scent and
swifter and swifter becomes the pace
of the eager feet of the questing deer.
Finally he drops in sheer exhaustion
on the ground, and as his weary head
sinks upon his breast, he realizes that
there, right on his own bosom. lies the
coveted sweet odor of the musk
$50 it is with us We do not have
to leave our own domain and chase
illusions. We can accomplish our pur-
poses within the prescribed latitude,
for, as matter of fact, the greatest
opportunities lie right at hand. And,
curiously enough, it is our own do
main which at the moment looms high
in the foreground.
Pull aside the curtain that hides
the tragedy of Russia's debacle and
face the truth. Then deny. if one
can the right of woman to declare her.
self against the forces which would
ordain her moral and social status.
Based on Education.
1.-THE progress of any country is
based, first upon its educational sys-
tenn and secondly upon the intellectual
advancement of it's women. The citi-
zens of this country should know what
has happened to women in Russia in
justice to the lovely young girlhood
of America. If the are not in
formed it is their duty to find out.
Authentic facts are easily obtained be-
cause of the wide publication Of Soviet
edicts. Possibly such information
would render less alluring some of the
lectures now being given under we'll
known auspices upon the beauties of
communism and the delights of Rus
sia's new institutions.
"If there are those who would so
reduce the defenses of this country
that it's frontiers of freedom are seri-
ously menaced, who dare object when
woman questions the motive and the
procedure?