Max Binheim

“ Montana women are foundation builders. Their pioneer mothers blazed trails and made clearings, and their daughters are to carry on the construction of a culture worthy of a foundation built from stones of sincerity, self-knowledge, courage and love of humanity.
Montana is a land of promise. Montana women are working to make it a land of fulfillment. They are studying the problems of older, congested districts, determining to provide against undesirable experiences recorded there. They are going to be wise and capable to handle the larger issues upon which national welfare depends. ”

“ The seeds of ambition planted in the hearts of the daughters of sacrificing pioneer mothers bore fruit in the lives of the next two generations. They began blazing mental and spiritual frontiers.
With the entering of broader fields of labor, changes in the attitude of women toward their work took place. Agitation for equal suffrage was begun and carried on to victory in the West by a daughter of one of Oregon's earliest pioneers; Abigail Scott Duniway was a trail-blazer just as her mother had been before her. ”

“ On the surface of things, at least the lives of us Nevada women appear much like the lives of our sisters in other states—broadened and sweetened, mayhap, by the splendid liberty that is ours.
But, no matter how varied our tastes may be; no matter whether we be homemakers or business women, or perhaps both (for we frequently combine these talents) ; no matter whether we be young or old, rich or poor, active or ailing, we have one great interest that appeals to us all. We are all sisters under the skin. ”

“ The world needs your children, Mothers—children trained by you to stand, in the midst of the world's turmoil, for principle and right; who among the self-seeking mass have a larger vision—the good of the whole. Through your children, the outcome of your consecration, love and wisdom, the tragedies of business and politics, the wrongs of the social life, may be overcome and the world become a fair and harmonious dwelling place for the children of men. ”

“ Silently the woman descends from the wagon and stands beside him.
The children hush their voices, awed for the moment by the sense of a tremendous crisis.
What does she see, this gallant pioneer woman?
Burning under the heat of summer's sun, a vast, sage-clad desert sweeps away to the wide horizon. In the appalling stillness, it is as if the sound of a human voice had never broken the heated silence. ”

“ The pioneer atmosphere has produced a generation of women who have no fear of the hazards of the unknown. In this greater freedom of the West she has capitalized her powers and broadened woman-made conventions and enabled each to develop for herself greater resourcefulness and individuality. Only a single generation separates the women of California today from the women who made the overland journey, and yet, they have exerted powerful and far-reaching influence in directing legislation for political and social reform. California was the sixth state to grant full suffrage to women. ”

“ The withdrawal from outer demands in order to have time to give one's best to this most important activity, motherhood, pays full dividends. Only a few years are required, fifteen or twenty perhaps; and they should be the very richest period of a woman's life. Afterwards there may come much that is attractive and desirable in outside demands, but nothing so satisfying as the work done quietly at home in the training of children to become grown-ups of fine calibre, who take their place in the city and country as men and women of power. ”

“ Strange as it may seem, you talk to any pioneer out here and she will laughingly make light of their days of toil and hardships. The scenery, the air, the bigness and broadness of this wild region gave those pioneer men and women a touch of the same, no inclination for any smallness of spirit. Doctors were miles and miles away; these frontier women would act as nurses with their home remedies, generous and unselfish in every way. ”

“ There is something romantic and appealing about frontier or pioneer life. The thrill of living next to nature and battling with her forces, and the wholesomeness of life in the wide spaces all have their appeal to the average man or woman. This frontier life develops a hardiness of character and staunchness of soul that has had much to do with America's miraculous and speedy ascent to her place among nations of the world. ”

“ But then, politicians are politicians the world over, and we are all beguiled by their smiling faces and fair promises and we are vitally concerned over the fate of the least of these. We are not unmindful of the political doings of our neighboring states but, of course, they lack the personal element that gives such a tang to our conversations at home, at clubs, over the tea-table or at bridge, for we certainly mingle our politics with all our activities and who shall say us nay? ”

“ Landes, by her own ability, courage and integrity, has carved for herself a unique and enviable position in the community. So ably has she fulfilled the duties of her civic office that she has won the admiration of even her sturdiest opponents. High national honors are predicted by many for this clever woman, should she choose to continue in the political arena. ”

“ How well the people of the covered wagon era accomplished their task of starting the great work of reclamation is told today in the vast green areas, watered by an intricate network of silver streams, that replace the barren, sage-clad waste.
Fair cities lift a skyline against the glorious sunset skies. Above the deep green of trees, church spires rise to greet morning light, and splendid schools give the children the finest educational advantages possible. ”

“ The chance to develop freely and fairly has belonged to the California woman from the day the first covered wagon deposited her and her little belongings at the new mining claim, or on the just-registered quarter section of land. Her opportunity has meant a busy and varied life; it has meant hard work in the house, on the farm, and in the shop. But these tasks gave her muscle and confidence. They gave the men of the West also confidence in her ability and pride in her achievement, and as California built up its institutions, California women worked side by side with the men of the state. ”

“ Left alone, seeing an Apache Indian sneaking up to steal a horse tethered near the house, is it any wonder we praise the bravery of the woman who thinks quickly enough to grab her rifle and either shoots—or scares him away? California has many noble pioneer women, but in Arizona, soil and air dry, climate warmer, water at long distance, the struggle for existence required independence, firmness, courage and energy.
Too much cannot be said for the real pioneer women of the West. Arizona is the only state in the Union that has a home built and maintained for its pioneers, both men and women. ”

“ In all phases of progressive efforts, one finds the women of California well to the front. If now we present an outstanding figure in a limited group, it is because with the flight of years, those who knew Jane Lathrop Stanford are, one by one, rapidly passing from the stage. Even among them, also, were many who never fully realized her vital contribution to the world.
Born in 1828 and married in 1850, in Albany, New York, to a young lawyer of marked promise and integrity, as Mrs. Leland Stanford, she lived a life of steadily increasing interest and richness. ”

“ She alone shows indomitable courage and determination. This woman is typical of those Western pioneer women, who arm in arm with the men, helped to blaze the trails across the great American Desert and to found an empire in the West.
In the founding and development of Utah, women bore a prominent part in welfare work and in every endeavor. In the poverty of early days, when isolated people were threatened with famine, the women endured privations with fortitude and with every ounce of their strength worked and fought for the fundamentals—shelter, food and clothing. ”

“ The distinction of Montana women is that in the mass they are cosmopolitan. Up and down and across the continent east of the divide, femininity has ventured or been invited into Montana. Women have come to teach and remained to keep house. Women have come to keep house and their daughters remain to practice law or medicine, to enter the Forest Service, or the State Legislature, to raise families, to write poetry, fiction, philosophy, to edit newspapers, to do all that femininity has ever tried, from driving aeroplanes to raising peonies on a dry-land farm. ”

“ Every lullaby was heard in some mother's arms, be she savage or civilized, every love song had its inception in the feeling of one man for one woman. The reveries are but recollections of evenings within the home circle and the war songs, just a challenge against the invader who would desecrate that home. If we read the lives of the great composers, we cannot fail to be impressed by the influence of some woman in each life.
Bach's second wife was the youngest daughter of a court musician, and fifteen years younger than the composer. ”

“ Into this remote mining camp of South Pass, hundreds of miles removed from railroads, surrounded by the crafty redmen, the highway robber, and the howling wolves and crying coyotes, came "the mother of woman suffrage for Wyoming." Mrs. Morris had an original style and out of the common order of conversational speech. Her son once said that his mother's abundant store of genial wit carried her through many a trying situation; she had courage to do what would have been easier to avoid; she scorned the static position adopted by the average woman ”

“ New Mexico is exceptionally fortunate in the large number of women within its borders—found not only in cities but also in small towns, on ranches and in isolated places—who have brought to this western environment the training and culture acquired in the older states. With this background, there has developed a group of women of wonderful executive ability, with the foresight to plan and carry out constructive projects that have had much to do with the progress of the new State along lines that mean much for the social welfare of its citizens. ”

“ As a group-venture and because of its unique scheme of financing, the magnificent Western Women's Club building in San Francisco, dedicated to the Womanhood of the West, conceived and built by women for women, costing one million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, is an outstanding civic and business venture. There, a minimum of two thousand enter its doors daily; club members number over nine thousand, and, together with membership of the tenant organizations, represent over twenty-five thousand women dedicating themselves daily to the welfare, betterment and happiness of humanity. ”

“ The most influential women in Montana are not the "tea and bridge" crowd, but those who have done great work in the advancement of the finer things of life. As a result of their unselfish and unceasing labors, even the smallest communities have study clubs where the world's best in literature, art and music is brought to those so far away from the source of these things. The state has a population of very little over six hundred thousand and yet, there are six thousand members of the federated women's clubs. ”

“ We regret that our noble pioneer women could not live to see the full fruits of their self-sacrifice and toil. We of today bless their memory, and our children will render them gratitude. A hundred years hence, the people of Idaho will remember and reverence the heroism of this valiant band of women. ”

“ These, too, are the pioneer women to whom we must pay homage along with the subduers of the western frontier who were their mothers and grandmothers. They deserve veneration for their bravery. For so long as civilization shall carry on we will have these unassuming pioneers who will break down barriers and subdue other than actual frontiers, and women will do their part shoulder to shoulder with men just as they did in the 1840's when the West was transformed in less than seventy years into a great commonwealth. ”

“ The women of Montana, today, are the splendid products of the more adventurous and the more courageous, who fought their way along the ever-extending frontier, building in so short a time, a people who enjoy the highest standard of living, the highest degree of education, who have gone out to meet the needs of the community in a spiritual and moral way. ”

“ If the movement which carried to dominance the Saxon rather than the Roman ideal for North America be examined, it will be found that the deep-rooted and outstanding factor, that differentiated the two streams of colonizing enterprises, lies in this one fact: the Saxon took with him the wife of his own blood and established a home; the Latin man did not. It is needless to point out that had the American woman failed in courage and endurance, she could not have entered into this conquest of these rich regions for America. ”