Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/463

426 has been withheld from them for their masterful achievements along many lines for the betterment of mankind and the preservation of republican institutions. I am sure that we may in advance congratulate the public upon a volume that will faithfully record and do justice to the history of the women who have been factors, and who have done their full part, in molding that most wonderful product of the age, which we proudly proclaim "Americanism."

The roll call of women who have taken part in the work of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is a long and distinguished one. I need not recall to you the names of the six president-generals who have preceded me—Mrs. Harrison, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Manning, Mrs. Fairbanks, and Mrs. McLean. Among those upon whom I have most relied during the two years of my administration are: Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, authority upon abuses of child labor, Mrs. John W. Foster, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. McLean, Madame Pinchot, a name synonymous with conservation, Mrs. Dickinson, wife of the Secretary of War, Mrs. Samuel Amnion, Mrs. Alexander Patton, Mrs. John A. Murphy, Mrs. Howard Hodgkins, Mrs. Draper, Mrs. Swormstedt, Mrs. Mussey, Mrs. Orton, Mrs. Edwin Gardner, Jr., all of whom except Mrs. McLean, Mrs. Stevenson and Mrs. John W. Foster—with many others equally able and devoted—have been chairmen of committees and done faithful and zealous work.

In accordance with that law of nature and of Providence, that in this world one sows and another reaps, it is my glorious privilege to have gathered up into one splendid sheaf the results of the labor and devotion of all my greater predecessors in office, as well as of the 87,000 Daughters of the American Revolution, who, by their toils, labors, sacrifices and gifts, have produced the grand results we see in our magnificent memorial building, and in the reports of the inspiring work of state