NATION-WIDE CIVIC BETTERMENT 



3 



prodigy, the Civic Improvement League of 

 St. Louis, which, although only one year 

 old, now numbers more than a thousand 

 members, and issues a monthly "'Bulletin^' 

 of its own. This league, said Mr. Layman, 

 "is not a charity organization, but a busi- 

 ness proposition. The membership com- 

 mittee has engaged an expert solicitor who 

 canvasses the city for funds. We have 

 the entire co-operation of the city officials, 

 especially the mayor.'^ 



Judge W. W. Slabaugh, of Omaha, pre- 

 sented the report of the Woman's Civic 

 League of that city. "We women," he 

 said "(in Omaha it is the men who are the 

 ^auxiliary'), have the interest of the city 

 deeply at heart, and hope before long to be 

 able to report gratifying progress in civic 

 improvement work." Following these ad- 

 dresses brief reports were presented by 

 Mrs. Martin W. Sherman, of Milwaukee?, 

 on her work among the schools of that 

 city; Miss M. Eleanor Tarrant, of Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky, on playground improve- 

 ment in that city; Mrs. E. P. Turner, of 

 Dallas, Texas, on the tree planting work 

 of her league, and Mrs. Louis Marion Mc- 

 Call, of St. Louis, Missouri, on the flower 

 planting work at the Children's Hospital 

 in that city. A telegram of cordial greet- 

 ings and hearty co-operation w^as received 

 at this point from Mrs. Eugene B. Heard, 

 of Middleton, Georgia, "in behalf of the 

 village improvement clubs of the South." 



The afternoon of the convention's first 

 day was spent in a carriage drive about 

 the city, as guests of the Woman's Civic 

 League. In the evening the Commercial 

 Club gave a reception to the delegates and 

 visitors. President H. A. Boardman, of 

 the club, assisted by the ladies of the Civic 

 League and the Art Workers' Guild, re- 

 ceived the delegates. Addresses were made 

 by Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, 

 Chicago; Mrs. Florence Kelley, secretary 

 of the Consumers' League, and Archbishop 

 Ireland. Miss Addams spoke of the pos- 

 sibilities of "the European background" 

 in our national life, describing how Hull 

 House attempts to incorporate into the 



civic life of Chicago the beauty and craft- 

 loving characteristics of the widely differ- 

 ing nations which immigrate to this 

 country. 



The reading of the papers was begun on 

 Thursday morning, after a brief business 

 session, at the Commercial Club. In the 

 absence of President Zueblin, who was 

 speaking at the National Convention of 

 Employers and Employees, at Minneap- 

 olis, Mrs. Conde Hamlin called the meet- 

 ing to order. The report of the committee 

 on location of headquarters was then re- 

 ceived. It recommended a change of head- 

 quarters from Springfield, Ohio, to Chi- 

 cago, Illinois. This report was accepted 

 and the headquarters ordered changed. 

 Hon. C. M. Loring, of Minneapolis, chair- 

 man of the Committee on Finance, re- 

 ported a recommendation that a perma- 

 nent Finance Committee be selected bv the 

 Executive Board. Through Frank Chapiii 

 Bray, chairman, the Committee on Con- 

 stitution and By-Laws recommended that 

 the term "field secretary" be substituted 

 for that of "organizer." Both reports 

 were adopted. 



The League then listened to invitations 

 for its next annual convention. Mr. 

 Thomas E. Hill, on behalf of the Com- 

 mercial Club of Duluth, Minnesota, in- 

 vited the convention to "the zenith city of 

 the unsalted seas," and Mr. Scott Brown 

 presented an invitation from Chautauqua. 

 After some discussion the convention de- 

 cided to accept the invitation of Chautau- 

 qua, with the date of meeting left to the 

 discretion of the executive board. A vote 

 of thanks was also tendered to Duluth for 

 its invitation. 



Dr. Ida C. Bender, a prominent physi- 

 cian and a member of the school board of 

 Bufi^alo, New York, presented a paper en- 

 titled "The Public Schools and Citizen- 

 ship." Despite the much vaunted su- 

 periority of our public school system, said 

 Dr. Bender, we will find that we have 

 much to learn from the systems of France 

 and Germany in the matter of directly 

 reaching the people. The greatest diffi- 



