THE NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS. The fourth convention of the National Congress of Mothers met in Des Moines, Iowa, on the evening of May 21, 1900. All the preceding conventions had been held in the city of Washington, and this new action was taken at the special invitation of the city of Des Moines. The evening of May 21st was given over to the greetings of hospitality and friendly assurances of appreciation. After music by the Iowa Band, the president Mrs. T. W. Birney, declared the convention open, after which ayer was offered by Rev. J. Everist Cathell, of Des Moines. Ex-Governor Jackson welcomed the congress to the state of Iowa in the following words: Members of the Mothers' Congress, Friends and Visitors: In behalf of the people of Iowa it is my pleasurable duty to extend to you a most cordial and enthusiastic welcome. In selecting this as your meeting place you have come to a city and state whose people fully appreciate the great honor which you have thus conferred, and sympathize most deeply with the great objects of your organization. Had you consulted the earlier geographies of this country before deciding to fix this meeting in Des Moines, I am afraid we should have been deprived of the opportunity and pleasure of extending to you this cordial welcome, for how well we do remember the mortification and disgrace we felt when, as a school boy, with our open geography before us, we beheld in disgust that long, dark streak lying west of the Mississippi river, and across it the word "Iowa;" and coupled with it, as though a part of it, those ominous words: "The great American Desert." Standing in the brilliancy of the intelligence reflected from the earlier geographies, we extend to you an enthusiastic greeting, and welcome you fairly across the boundary line and into the very heart of the great American Desert. The people of Iowa believe in homes and in motherhood. Their hearts and sympathies are with you in every effort made in the development of these mighty influences for the betterment of society and the upbuilding of a great people. Personally I feel highly honored to have been selected to extend to you the good will, hearty greetings and enthusiastic welcome of more than two and one-half millions of intelligent, patriotic, moral and contented people, for while we may differ on religious questions, sometimes quarrel and fight over politics, and are even known to hold opposite opinions on the great questions of Aguinaldo and expansion, we are one people, a united people, in our respect, admiration, love and confidence of motherhood. You have come to a state whose territory extends nearly three hundred miles square, and covered by a network of steam railways of over 9,000 miles, a state whose love of God and country is unanimous, where poverty and squalor are nowhere, and prosperity is everywhere, a state that contributes over $8,000,000 annually in support of its free public schools, being a larger percentage of its total income for this purpose than any other state in the Union. You have come to a most wondrously rich and prosperous state. New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio have contributed over a quarter of a million of their native born to her citizenship. Add to this New England's contribution, and you have nearly half of the present population that are the native born and their immediate children, of these favored sections. They laid the foundation and erected the structure of this great commonwealth, polished by unity of effort this precious gem of a free republic, mounted it on a pinnacle so high that its reflecting rays have flashed for more than a half century an invitation to those of other countries and other lands to come where the adopted children are accepted on equal terms with the native born; and to-day two and one-half millions of American citizens bless the name of Iowa, and rest secure in the freedom and protection of her laws. No equal number of people on earth enjoy a more boundless prosperity or more of the luxuries and comforts of life. It is such a people and such a civilization that bids me extend to the Mothers' Congress their sympathy in your great work and to welcome you to their hearts and their firesides. We have already heard of what is known as the "New Woman." We have already seen the mistakes she is making in thrusting aside the great work of wife and motherhood, and reducing it to a secondary place. We have already become acquainted with what is known as the "New Girl," and deplore her fatal mistake. It would seem that this popular fad is being educated in everything else except motherhood and the proper preparation for it. Everything that is theoretical, visionary and false, nothing that is practical, common sense and true. There is most surely a great work for the Mothers' Congress and for the American mother, a work that shall exalt wifehood and motherhood as far above the ambitious notoriety of the new woman and the twentieth century girl as the stars of heaven are above the sands of the shore. We are informed that the annual income of the men of this nation over twenty-one years of age is something less than $100 a year, that ninety per cent of the young men of our country are receiving a yearly income of less than $300, and yet the new girl is being educated along the lines of a yearly expenditure of nearer $3,000 a year. The result is to be what? Either a surrender of all high ideals, of a false sentiment and a mistaken education, ending in disappointment and sorrow, to finally assume the duties of wife and motherhood and thereby help to pile up the accumulated evidence that ''marriage is a failure," or else that one other alternative is left for the upto-date girl of to day to be the out of date girl of the future. If there is any word in the language of people that is calculated to stir the soul of humanity with reverence, love, respect and affection, that word is "'mother." Around it cluster the tenderest sentiments and the most sacred memories; most intimately is it associated with the growth of human character. No influence is more potent in the development of men, and in guiding their future course of action. The force and influence of this one word has developed statesmen, philosophers and scholars. It has led armies to victory, revolutionized empires, developed continents, and guided onward the forces of civilization. It is associated with all that is modest, pure, selfsacrificing and gentle. It is beyond the blare of trumpets, the plaudits of the multitude, the gaudy display of notoriety. In its sweet simplicity it rests in contentment on that sublime principle that "virtue is its own reward." We see a mighty railroad bridge spanning the great river. A train loaded with humanity creeps slowly across. See the carved and beautiful columns, the painted arches, the massive turrets. How the crowds applaud and admire its architectural beauty. A million human souls are carried in safety over this bridge every year. Come with me, look down at the great central pier. See down thirty feet below the surface of that black water. See imbedded in mortar, unadmired, unseen and unknown a granite boulder. On its giant form rests the safety of that mighty structure. So in life. It is the unseen, the unknown powers that sustain the great forces of the world. Surrounded by the desolation and gloom of Valley Forge, the character of Washington was revealed in all its strength and purity. Before the smoke of battle had lifted from the field of Gettysburg the great Lincoln had immortalized a character that shall live as the sanctified in our national history. In the whole life of Grant, from Galena to Mt. McGregor, he personified manhood and glorified it by his character. From the beginning to the end of our awful civil war, our flag floated over as brave an army as ever trod the face of earth. They had been rocked to sleep in the arms of patriotism. In their young lives they heard the sweet songs of liberty from the lips of a million mothers. They marched on to the fields of battle, on to the fields of death and glory, and thus it is that in every development of human life motherhood is the granite boulder supporting the broad and mighty highway of human progress. Again, members of the Mothers' Congress, we welcome you with all our hearts to the capital city of Iowa. |