Woman's Relief Corps

“ One of the important factors in this movement is the Woman's Relief Corps, an organization which has grown in strength during the last decade and is making its members staunch patriots and woman suffragists. ”

“ She was elected Department Treasurer in February, 1892, and has been unanimously re-elected at every subsequent State convention. She can rightfully claim the honor of being the pioneer of the Woman's Relief Corps. The organization, which now numbers one hundred and fifty thousand members, is largely indebted to her for the written work which was the foundation of its ritualistic system. ”

“ Sarah E. Fuller, Mrs. Carrie R. Read, and the names of the committee on transfer to the government, Mrs. Kate E. Jones, Mrs. Kate B. Sherwood, Mrs. Mary M. North and Mrs. Mary L. Gilman.
The aims and objects of the Woman's Relief Corps are:
"To specially aid and assist the Grand Army of the Republic, and to perpetuate the memory of their heroic dead.
To assist such Union veterans as need our help and protection, and to extend needful aid to their widows and orphans. To find them homes and employment, and assure them of sympathy and friends. ”

“ The Woman's Christian Temperance Union was the first and still continues to be the largest of the organizations. It works for the franchise through public lectures, petitions, legislative bills and various educational measures. The Woman's Relief Corps and a large number of church, lodge and literary societies enlist women's activities in a marked degree. They sit on the official boards of many churches and some of these are composed entirely of women. ”

“ He takes great interest in all the efforts of his wife in the work of women's organizations, and they have travelled extensively together in all parts of the State and to national gatherings in representing the work of the Grand Army and Woman's Relief Corps. ”

“ Upon the roster of this order are the names of women in the highest walks of life, and any who are loyal and of good moral character are welcome to the ranks of those who are banded together for such patriotic work as that of the Woman's Relief Corps. ”

“ I thank God that he has brought to the front this auxiliary; that there was mind enough, charity enough, generosity enough, to bring into existence the Woman's Relief Corps."
The convention, upon reassembling, voted to hold its annual sessions on the date and in the city chosen by the National Encampment, G. A. R., and then elected officers for the ensuing year, namely: President, E. Florence Barker, Maiden, Mass.; Senior Vice-President, Kate B. Sherwood, Toledo, Ohio; Junior Vice-President, E. K. Stimson, Denver, Col.; Secretary, Sarah E. Fuller, East Boston, Mass. ”

“ The wounded and sick of an army were indebted to the chance aid of friend or stranger, or were left to perish from neglect. Nothing has ever been held so cheap as human life, unless, indeed, it were human rights. But even from times of antiquity we read of women, sometimes of noble birth, who followed the soldiers to the field, treating the wounds of friend or lover with healing balms or rude surgical appliance. To woman is the world indebted for the first systematic efforts toward relief, through the establishment of hospitals for sick or wounded soldiers. ”

“ In short, the women of Great Britain are working side by side with men in the initiation and execution of plans to solve the problems which confront the nation.
Four committees, as for instance those making investigations and recommendations on Women's Wages and Drink Among Women, are entirely composed of women, and great departments, such as the Women's Land Army, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, are officered throughout by them. Hospitals under the War Office have been placed in complete control of medical women ”

“ The Red Cross Society trained an excellent corps of nurses, as the Russo-Japanese War demonstrated.
Women are employed as government officials in the railroad offices; they are also employed in banks. ”

“ Not only is there call for a pooling of brains to look after the timid and unready, but there is need of combination to open the gates for the prepared and brave. Few who cheered the Red Cross nurses as they made their stirring march on Fifth Avenue, knew that those devoted women would, on entering the Military Nurse Corps, find themselves the only nurses among the Allies without a position of honor. ”

“ Although not a near kinswoman of any soldier of the Civil War, she has given her best efforts to the cause represented by the Union veteran, and is recognized as one of the ablest of the loyal women of the Relief Corps. ”

“ No words are adequate to describe the systematic, persistent faithfulness of the women who organized and led the Branches of the United States Sanitary Commission. Their voluntary labor had all the regularity of paid service, and a heartiness and earnestness which no paid service can ever have.... Men were ashamed to doubt where women trusted, or to murmur where they submitted, or to do little where they did so much.—Woman's Work in the Civil War. ”

“ In half or more of the states women registered for war work, stating the amount of time they could give, the special service for which they were fitted and the kinds of work they could do. When the request came for volunteers for any particular service, or when it became known that there was some new need for woman’s assistance, the leader of each unit knew just where to look for the necessary help. ”

“ The ladies, it may be observed, who were attached to the Hospital Transport Corps at the headquarters of the Commission, were all from the higher walks of society, women of the greatest culture and refinement, and unaccustomed to toil or exhausting care. Yet not one of them shrank from hardship, or revolted at any labor or exertion which could serve to bring comfort to the sufferers under their charge. ”

“ Women are, by nature, much better fitted for nurses than men can be. Clara Barton.
Had there been need for them, the Red Cross could easily have recruited an army of twenty-five thousand nurses from the flower of American womanhood. Clara Barton.
Large organizations of women, the best in the country and I believe the best in the world, have faithfully labored with me to merge the Red Cross into their societies, as a part of woman’s work. ”

“ Through it pass the sympathy and the help of the earnest workers in the older churches to the earnest workers in our mission churches and schools. The people for whom we labor cannot be saved either for this world or the next, unless the women who make the homes are lifted out of coarseness and vice, and taught true womanhood and womanly duties and arts. The Woman's Bureau is a most potent factor in the work of bringing the Gospel to the rescue of womanhood in our mission fields. ”

“ In the opinion of many, it is the privilege of woman to minister to the sick and soothe the sorrowing—and in the present crisis of our country’s history, to aid our brothers to the extent of her capacity—and whether duty leads her to the couch of luxury, the abode of poverty, the crowded hospital, or the terrible battle field—it makes but little difference what costume she assumes while in the discharge of her duties.—Perhaps she should have the privilege of choosing for herself whatever may be the surest protection from insult and inconvenience in her blessed, self-sacrificing work. ”

“ A glance at any account of the mobilization of woman-power in Great Britain, Miss Fraser's admirable "Women and War Work," for instance, will reveal the printed page dotted thick with the names of volunteer associations. A woman with sympathy sees a need, she gets an idea and calls others about her. Quickly, there being no red tape, the need begins to be met. ”

“ When it became possible to work together for other than religious ends,—when large social service was made possible to women, as in our sanitary commission during the last war,—women everywhere rose to meet the need. The rise 166and spread of that greatest of women’s organizations, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, has shown anew how ready is the heart of woman to answer the demands of other than personal relations. ”

“ Women’s share has indeed been magnificent in the work of equipping the hospitals with bandages, garments, stores, and comforts of all descriptions. In the first week of war it is no exaggeration to say that there was hardly a woman in the kingdom who was not making something for the sick and wounded. But organisation stepped in at once to direct and systematise their efforts, and the main work has been carried on under the auspices of Queen Mary’s Needlework Guild, and the Joint Societies of the British Red Cross and the Order of St. John. ”

“ Lodgings are inspected and when suitable, scheduled for workers coming to the area. In some cases the management in private factories do not adopt formal welfare workers but get a woman of the right type and put her in charge of the female operatives, with generally excellent results. The value of the influence of this work on our girls cannot be over-estimated—it [pg 137] is an influence of the very best kind, and our experiences in munition and welfare work, every class of women working together, is going to be of great and permanent good. ”

“ The National Woman's Relief Society was organized March 17, 1842, at Nauvoo, Ills., being almost the oldest woman's society in existence. It became national in 1868 and was incorporated in 1892, to assist the needy, and to care for the afflicted, to lift up the fallen, to ameliorate the condition of suffering humanity, to encourage habits of industry and economy; to give special attention to those who have not had proper training for life, to sacredly care for the dying and the dead, to minister to the lonely, however lowly, in the spirit of grace and heavenly charity. ”

“ We have also learned a great deal in our welfare work, and the welfare supervisors and the workers both have benefited, and the heads of the innumerable hostels, which we have built [pg 269] everywhere for our girls—dozens in our new Government-built munition cities, have been of very real help and service to the girls. A tactful, sensible, educated woman has a great deal to give that helps the younger girl, and can look after and advise her as to health, work, leisure and amusements in a way that leaves real lasting benefit. ”

“ It is difficult to understand why, with such examples of women's efficiency before it, the Red Cross, founded by Clara Barton, places merely two bureaus in the hands of a woman, has chosen no woman as an officer, has put but one woman on its central and executive committee, and not a single woman on its present controlling body, the War Council. ”

“ In war time she was especially active in the Women's Soldiers' Aid Society, going south as far as Memphis, and looking to the right distribution of the provisions sent to the hospitals there, and she was one of the leaders in the women's temperance crusade. ”

“ There are hundreds and thousands of benevolent women in the land, who would rejoice to spend and be spent in this service, but who have neither the opportunity to qualify themselves, nor the assistance necessary in finding the proper location when prepared. Why is it not time to turn some of the charity of woman, which so long has clothed and educated young men for their benevolent ministries, to aiding their own sex in as important and more neglected service?
Some can interest themselves in the schools in their vicinity, and aid the teacher by sympathy, counsel, and lending suitable books. ”

“ What could women do to help in the dreadful struggle? A meeting of New York ladies was called, which resulted in the formation of an Aid Society, pledging loyalty to the Government, and promising assistance to soldiers and their families. Two gentlemen were sent to Washington to ask what work could be done, but word came back that there was no place for women at the front, nor no need for them in the hospitals. Such words were worse than wasted on American women. ”

“ Everywhere the girl in America strove with helpful earnestness to do "her bit." Every strata of society called out its members in a wonderful plan of feminine preparedness. Besides the thousands of women members of the Red Cross some of the most prominent organizations officered and planned by women include The National League for Women's Service, which has branches in every large city in the United States. They enrolled women as motor car drivers, telegraphers, wireless operators, agriculturists and skilled mechanics. ”

“ Colonel Bruce Porter paid his women workers a well-earned compliment when he reported recently: “Since the early days of the war the standard of nursing and care of the wards has been maintained by means of the loyalty of the reduced staff to their chiefs, and the whole of the women here have been and are magnificent. To keep this big crowd of women workers at their best could only be done by a woman of exceptional ability, and I am fortunate in having that type of woman as my matron.” ”

“ So time is found for a sewing-school, for meetings with the women, for temperance societies, for mission Sunday-schools, and numerous other forms of systematic work—for the purifying of the home life, and to guard the children from the fate of the parents. Who but women could win an entrance into such homes and hearts? It is to counteract the ignorance and desolation of womanhood that woman’s help is needed in this broad field. ”

“ As the hearts of those at home have opened pityingly toward the needs of women suffering from the effects of oppression, abuse and paganism, right here in our own country, and the hearts of our missionaries have been burdened with the same woes, the helping hand has been mutually extended; and it has been the mission of the Bureau of Woman’s Work to join these hands in strong and loving ministry. ”