748
THE CONGRESS OE WOMEN.
there was no such thing in our land as an organization of women, and the mere suggestion of such a possibility would have produced a moral earthquake in masculine ranks. Today there is not a home in America that has not felt the power of her organized motherhood. Women who sit in the darkness of Eastern despotism have felt the benediction of this mother-love. She has touched the doors of colleges and universities; the locks were rusty and the hinges creaked, but they have swung wide open that her daughters might walk in. And today those daughters are artists, sculptors, poets, novelists, and successful business women—ay, M. Ds. and D. Ds.—and nobody is hurt. In conference and convention these mother-hearts meet and discuss great social, moral, and political questions, and nobody marvels. Churches that but a few years ago would have been considered desecrated had a woman’s gown but touched the pulpit floor now give her cordial welcome; sad eyes in prisons and asylums look up and smile beneath her motherly care; schools are made more practical by her oversight, and churches more charitable by her influence. The loving arms of organized motherhood have encircled the world.
These bands of organized mothers are known by many different titles: the . Woman’s Missionary Society, King’s Daughters, Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Woman’s Suffrage Association, Free Kindergarten, Working Woman’s Guild, Association for Advancement of Women. These are but a few branches on the giant tree of organized motherhood; but by whatever name known, “their toils, their hopes, their aims are one”—the progress and elevation of the children of their love.
In the band of organized motherhood, of which this little white ribbon is the sign and seal of membership, the motherly arms are opened as wide as the world, the mother-heart bows in benediction over every son and daughter of Adam. This band is organized, armed and equipped with the weapons of offense and defense—first, against the three great dragons that devour humanity—Alcohol, Tobacco, Impurity— these three, and the greatest of these is alcohol, for in his slimy trail inevitably follow all the rest. Our great dominant issue is the extermination of the liquor traffic, whose baneful effects it is needless that I should tell you—not a man, woman or child in America but knows them. To this end we work along three great lines: Prevention, first and best of all, for that means educating all the children of the land scientifically against its baneful influence; next, reformation of the drunkard whenever, whatever, and by whatever means it may be possible; and, lastly, legislation as the only feasible means of making such reformation possible and permanent.
Could the individual efforts of these two hundred thousand women ever have wrought out one tithe of the marvelous results that have been achieved by the combined and systematic action of this great organization?
This mother-host takes into its loving care the entire child-life of the nation, from the day the baby first opens its wondering eyes upon the world until it reaches young manhood or womanhood, and is then transferred to the sheltering arms of the White Cross or the protecting aegis of the White Shield. First, for the baby, comes the creche or day-nursery, where the children of w r age-working mothers can be cared for while the mother goes out to work. Here all comforts are provided; the little one is bathed, dressed, fed, and cared for by kindly nurses. In the evening the mother comes and takes it home for the night. For this, if able, she pays ten cents a day; if not, the care is given free. In any case, the little fee is taken to foster an independent spirit in the mother.
Next comes the baby hospital, where the sick baby is taken and given medical treatment without the mother. Dr. Sarah McNutt of New York, who founded the first baby hospital, has evolved a new idea in hospital life. Among her friends are many young girls, daughters of well-to-do or wealthy parents, whom she has organized into what she calls the petting committee. She maintains that petting is just as necessary to the health of a well baby or the care of a sick one as food, fire or medicine. So each day a certain detailed number of these girls go to the hospital, carrying toys, pictures, flowers, and such delicacies as the doctor will permit; then they carry,