strenuous effort, in securing the appointment of a woman factory inspector; the share which the club women had in the Juvenile Court movement; the passage of an equal guardianship law; active interest in state educational matters, and the raising of a memorial fund to Mary Abbott, to be used as a scholarship for Connecticut teachers for further study.

Delaware writes: "We surely have the right to claim that it was owing to the pressure brought to bear upon our legislature by our Federation that we now have a compulsory school law, a forestry commission and state forester, and an appropriation and a health commission to be entirely devoted to the fight against tuberculosis."

Georgia unhesitatingly names as the most important work: The educational work which embraces the establishment of Industrial Schools, the raising of money as a loan fund for poor boys and girls, the obtaining of scholarships, the establishment of libraries. One industrial school at Tallulah Falls opened last July with twenty-one mountain boys and girls and closed at Christmas with sixty pupils. Two teachers are employed, one at sixty and the other at fifty dollars per month. The Federation has over one hundred scholarships for worthy boys and girls and also a considerable loan fund.

Indiana places first the value of the club movement as a training school where the women have learned to think clearly, to speak their thoughts deliberately and frankly and to take counsel together; the Federation keeps a close watch upon all educational matters, on conditions of women and children in mines, factories and workshops, upon state and local institutions, especially those where women and children are confined, upon civic affairs, upon matters affecting public health-; the keynote of the Federation is "Women's Responsibility to the Community" and they stand pledged to work for school franchise for women, for the introduction of a complete system of manual training and domestic science in the public schools. Illinois voices so well the difficulty which each president feels when asked to report "the best and most important work," when all is good and important that a considerable space is given to direct quotation:

"The question of what our Federation has accomplished is a difficult one to answer in brief. I have been saying in an address before clubs that 'a state Federation of Women's Clubs is a clearinghouse of information, is a center for inspiration, but-more than either or both of these-it is a force to accomplish what the women who constitute the Federation never could accomplish standing

singly, scattered over the state.' What we have accomplished in the first and second of these capacities cannot be listed; but I will endeavor to tell you a little of what we have done and are doing in the third.

"On the statute books of Illinois are many good laws which stand, some in part and some wholly, to the credit of the Federation. Among these are the compulsory education law, and the child labor law, and, following the passage of these two, we secured an amendment to the compulsory education law abolishing idle time between compulsory school days and legal employment for wages. Another gives parents joint guardianship of their children, previous to the enactment of this law fathers having been the sole legal guardians of their children in Illinois. Among others are the provisions for state registration of trained nurses, the raising of the age of consent from fourteen to sixteen, and a law defining and providing for the punishment of crimes against children.

"In addition to these-and I know the list is far from complete-are our victories of the past year, when, in addition to lending our influence to certain humanitarian measures which passed -notably, a bill aimed at the white slave traffic and another concerning the payment of certain debts by prostitutes-we secured an amendment to the library law of Illinois which gives our state a Library Extension Commission. For fourteen years we had labored for this, conditions in Illinois having been unusual, but now we have the commission and its existence is entirely due to the wise methods employed by the Legislative Committee of the Federation.

"Our Public Health work is as great a work as we are donig at present. We have a standing committee on Public Health, and for the last two years tuberculosis (its prevention and cure) and social hygiene have the two themes of this carefully selected department. Upon the latter subject, which we consider the more important, much literature has been circulated, care being taken to prepare the way before it, and lectures have been arranged in all parts of the state. These have usually been by physicians.

"Our Civil Service Committee of the past two years has worked in close coöperation with the State Civil Service Commission, and with the president of the United States Civil Service Commission, and has thus been able to give real service of the kind needed and at the same time to give correct instruction to the club women of the state upon this important subject.

"We have had a special committee to visit the seventeen state institutions which are under Civil Service and to report to the Federation the results of these visits. The final report of this commit

tee was rendered at our annual meeting in November, and we are having it published as a pamphlet. The incomplete report, submitted a year ago, we recently discovered was reprinted and made to do service as a campaign document before the last election.

"One of the foremost interests of our women at present is the condition of the county almshouses and the lives of the inmates, 'the forgotten people.'

"I have confined myself to the state-wide work saying nothing of the great work being done by our city clubs for the city and its surroundings. Just now, the Juvenile Protective Association of Chicago, through the Civics Committee of our Federation, is extending its work and carrying it into all the large towns of the state.

"Now I know you would like to have me close, but I must tell you that Mr. Bok is mistaken in believing the club women do not dare mention equal suffrage. By vote, at our state convention in 1902, we endorsed the then proposed legislative measure to grant limited suffrage to tax-paying women; in 1904, we endorsed a bill to give to the women of Illinois suffrage on equal terms with men; and in 1906, we endorsed the Chicago municipal suffrage measure. No suffrage measure has ever come before the Illinois Federation and been defeated.

"Our 30,000 women are becoming better informed, more efficient, and, because of the information and the efficiency, are growing more confident and more earnest in good works year by year."

Iowa considers the Press Committee's work of very great importance since by them public opinion is moulded and directed in favor of good measures; through the efforts of the Educational Committee sewing has been placed in many public schools and three scholarships have been established for women in the state university; the Health Committee is battling against the encroachments of the white plague and is striving also to check the spread of the black plague; great interest in civics has been aroused with the result that several of the large cities have employed experts to assist them in their work of civic improvement.

Kansas reports an active campaign against tuberculosis; the introduction of a unique kind of civic work, the Civic Rally; two scholarships in the state university and a constant increase in the educational fund; public playgrounds established, and great civic activity everywhere.

Louisiana is justly proud of her part in the combined work of the Federation and the Louisiana Forestry Association, which resulted in the establishment of a chair of Forestry at the state university; prizes have been offered to the child writing the best essay suggesting a state tree, with reasons for choice, for the best school

garden and for nature observations (these prizes are offered with the two-fold object of increasing interest in nature study and of securing a correct history of the flora and fauna of the state); great interest is exhibited in the child labor legislation, in state scholarships and especially in civic work in establishing crèches for the babes of those who must toil in factories and shops, in school improvement associations for teachers and parents, and in all legislation which will make better conditions for women.

Kentucky's most important work is, unquestionably, the arousing of the whole state to an appreciation of its educational needs. Within two and one-half years the Federation has organized school improvement leagues in one hundred and nineteen counties. This work is planned, executed and financed by the club women and is already showing splendid results; work with the Traveling Libraries, now in its fourteenth year, still continues and much work is done for food sanitation, child labor legislation, anti-tuberculosis campaign, civic cleanliness, forestry and waterways, good roads, school suffrage, legislation touching the White Slave Traffic and many other phases of advancing civilization.

Maine names as first in importance the result of eight years' hard work, arousing public interest, shaping public opinion, arguing before legislators, and finally securing the passage of a very good child labor law which, however, the president declares still "needs some tinkering-which it going to get."

The Educational Committee is very active and, by means of the scholarship fund, tries to supply at least one college educated teacher a year to a rural school in a community of low educational ideals. In speaking of this work, Mrs. Flagg says, "We persuade the club nearest the school to make it their charge and transform it into a model school. Then we hope to form a club among the parents and influence them to keep it a model school."

Much good work is done in Maine by literary workers and by Health Committees, and the present work of the Forestry Committee is to aid the movement which shall establish a State Forest Reserve at Mt. Katahdin.

Maryland is working to create public sentiment and to pave the way for many civic and reform movements. To work of this kind on the part of the federated clubs is due in no small measure many existing institutions and the closest harmony exists between the Federation and the organized associations for relief and reform throughout the state. An energetic campaign against the White Slave Traffic is at present being carried on by the Social Hygiene Committee; an effort is being made to secure the proper licensing

of Employment Bureaus; work for bills providing for proper registry of births and for eligibility of women for representation upon the county school boards.

The Massachusetts president says: "Perhaps one work which our Federation does that differs from others is the teaching of thrift to pupils of the public schools through the system known as 'stamp saving.' For illustration, the children in the public schools of one town (not city) saved over ten thousand dollars in five years. In another town where the work was started last fall fiftysix dollars was saved in the first week. All our committees are doing excellent work and the relations between the clubs and the Federation are becoming stronger each year. Much was accomplished last year in the interest of playgrounds. A bill with referendum attached having been passed, many clubs sought to educate the citizens in their communities in favor of the establishment of one or more playgrounds with the result that nearly every city and town in the state adopted the referendum. In some cases the clubs coöperated with other organizations and established and equipped supervised playgrounds as an object lesson. This year our main work is to bring the workers together in conference and before the season is over we shall have had thirteen conferences, each taking up a different line of work."

Michigan gives the following concise statement:

"President Angell of our State University says the best thing we have done is the establishment of the Lucinda Hinsdale Stone loan scholarship fund ($5,000) for the assistance of worthy young women through college.

"We are proud of all our work, have done wonders legislatively, have a bill of our own to come out in next session of our Legislature entitled 'A Bill to Pension Indigent Children Under School Age.' We are strong on civics and philanthropy."

From Minnesota :

"The Minnesota Federation has accomplished five things:
"1. State Art Commission.

"2. Traveling Libraries.

"3. A large factor in securing Forest Reserve.

"4. Established Loan Scholarship Fund.

"5. Separation of sexes in State Training School and establishing new Industrial School for Girls.

"The last was the greatest effort and was notable on account of the very able opposition. Contest was carried through three sessions of Legislature before bill passed and appropriation was secured.