MRS. EMMONS CROCKER 



205 



instinct, this far-seeing intuitive reason- 

 ing, woman is now applying to the 

 great public questions of the day. 



Women have organized national and 

 international societies notable among 

 them the General Federation of 

 Women's Clubs, 1,200,000 members, 

 with active, working branches in every 

 country, state, county, city and hamlet; 

 and, at a word from their leader, they 

 can, almost immediately, put its entire 

 machinery in motion to educate public 

 opinion on vital questions a sort of 

 endless chain system by which letters 

 or circulars to men in public life, to 

 newspapers, and to other publicity 

 agencies, may be increased in number 

 and volume with the force and velocity 

 of a ball of snow rolling down a steep 

 hill. And few there are who have the 

 temerity to oppose or stand in the way 

 of this approaching avalanche of public 

 opinion . 



It would take the wealth of a Croesus 

 to finance these large national and 

 international associations and to pay 

 for clerical labor; but women carry on 

 the work of these great reform agencies 

 with practically no capital to speak of, 

 as women do the work without com- 

 pensation and pay their own traveling 

 and hotel expenses because of their 

 unselfish and self-sacrificing love for 

 humanity. The only reason men have 

 not such organizations is because men 

 will not, as a whole, give their time and 

 their services without compensation for 

 patriotic public duty. 



In an article, "Conservation- 

 Woman's Work," published in the 

 Governors' Conference issue of the 

 American Forestry Magazine in June, 

 1908, I made this statement: "From 

 time immemorial when any great work 

 is to be accomplished any achieve- 

 ment which vitally concerns the life 

 and the welfare of humanity, any up- 

 lift of the children of men in the home, 

 or in the broader field, the world to 

 woman's integrity, resourcefulness, 

 genius and capacity for endurance has 

 the final triumph been due." 



I once heard the president of a large 

 waterway congress say that when a 

 man's name was placed upon the board 

 of directors or upon the rolls as state 

 vice-president, etc., that the matter 



usually ended there. "But," he added, 

 "when a woman is elected to so respon- 

 sible a position, she goes ahead and 

 does something." Witness the work for 

 prison reform of Katherine Bement 

 Davis as Commissioner of Corrections 

 for New York City; Mrs. E. Borden 

 Harriman as member of the National 

 Board of Industrial Relations; and 

 Miss Julia C. Lathrop as head of the 

 Federal Children's Bureau. Innumer- 

 able other instances might be cited. 



At the thirty-fourth annual meeting 

 of the American Forestry Association 

 held in New York City on January 11th, 

 Mrs. Emmons Crocker of Fitchburg, 

 Massachusetts, was elected a vice- 

 president of the Association. 



This is the first time that a woman 

 has been chosen to fill this responsible 

 position, and the American Forestry 

 Association, in its noble work to save 

 from devastation and extinction the 

 unparalleled forest resources of our 

 country, is to be congratulated upon 

 having upon its staff of workers one 

 whose efforts are as untiring, whose 

 enthusiasm is as great, and whose heart 

 and soul are as fully in the work, as is 

 Mrs. Emmons Crocker. 



That her unselfish and self-sacrificing 

 work and ability has been so signally 

 recognized is a source of gratification to 

 the more than a million club women of 

 the United States whom Mrs. Crocker 

 has so ably served for four years as 

 National Chairman of Conservation in 

 the General Federation of Women's 

 Clubs. 



Mrs. Crocker took up the work for 

 Conservation several years ago, and 

 has since given all of her time to the 

 propaganda of that great cause. She 

 has spoken at a number of large con- 

 ventions and congresses, and the prin- 

 ciples she has advocated have met with 

 the approval of the most up-to-date, 

 the most progressive, the most advanced 

 and the most patriotic of our citizens. 



She has worked unceasingly for the 

 integrity of the National Forests and 

 for the perpetuation of the Forest 

 Service. 



At the Biennial Federation of 

 Women's Clubs at Cincinnati in 1910, 

 Mrs. Crocker spoke on "Wilful Waste 

 Makes Woeful Want." She told of the 



