352 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Traveling libraries now number 250 in the state, going into every 

 village, hamlet and neighborhood, and that condition is entirely due 

 to the women's club movement. The women of the state who desire 

 information and have access to public libraries, now have access 

 to the traveling libraries, and Minnesota has done a wonderful thing 

 in providing these traveling libraries. 



When we look at what the club women of the country have 

 done in the interest of child labor, and what the southern women 

 have done in the south in the cotton factories for the bettering 

 of the condition of those that labor in them, we must acknowledge 

 that they have done a great work. In the southern states they 

 erected their large cotton factories and then put the white children 

 into them, children from seven to fifteen years of age, some of the 

 children going on at six o'clock in the evening and working till 

 morning, put to work because their delicate little fingers are more 

 agile and better fitted for the complicated machinery. When this 

 condition of affairs became known it created a perfect horror among 

 southern club women, and they have now eliminated it to a great 

 degree. 



The condition of the sweat shops in eastern cities has been taken 

 up by the club women of the country, and we know what has been 

 accomplished in eliminating that trouble. When we think of 

 the interest club women have taken in education in the local schools 

 of the country, and of the demands made upon educators for certain 

 changes in the educational system, and the ready response with 

 which they were met in their demands, I do not think any one will 

 withhold the proper credit from the club women. 



We know what the women of the western states have done in 

 the interest of irrigation. Some women said that was getting into 

 politics. The reply was, "No ! That is not politics, it is religion." 

 And so they became interested in the great problem of irrigation 

 in the west, and we in Minnesota expect to benefit by it. Now we 

 come to the subject of forestry which is a subject that interests you 

 greatly. The club women have interested themselves in the 



forestry proposition, about which you will hear from another source. 

 When you see the influence the club women have upon some of the 

 great affairs of the day you will know how busy they are and how 

 it is hardly possible for a woman to go into a club without being a 

 busy woman. Fundamentally the idea was for self-culture. The 

 women took up the outline study for self-culture, but they have 

 gotten away from that long ago ; we are spreading out, and whether 

 in the hamlet, the city, the state or the nation, we are busy people — 

 and wherever you find a club woman you will find a busy womaa 

 (Applause.) 



