Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/484

Rh distinguished women to wear the badge of supreme authority. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, Mrs. Adlai Stevenson, Mrs. John W. Foster, Mrs. Daniel Manning, Mrs. Charles Warren Fairbanks, Mrs. Donald McLean and the present incumbent, Mrs. Matthew T. Scott, of Bloomington, Illinois. Mrs. Scott is now well into the third year of her stewardship, and the list of splendid results which may be directly ascribed to her methods is worthy of five times that lapse of time. Like Joshua, she led the cohorts into the land of their desire—the Continental Memorial Hall—and has placed the business affairs of the society on a firm financial basis which will lighten the burden for her successors for all time to come. To build this national hall of fame had been the goal of the society's ambition from the early days of its existence. Every president-general which the Daughters elected labored indefatigably for this end, but it was the keen business acumen, the steady purpose and unflagging labor of Mrs. Scott which made possible so speedy a realization of this hope. Mrs. Donald McLean had by her prompt action in raising the money by mortgage made possible the erection of the hall without the slow, painful method of waiting for the money to be collected. Mrs. Scott took up the work with splendid energy and pushed the lagging forward, closed out every contract connected with the building and planning without one lawsuit or even unfriendly episode with those in charge of the construction. This is a remarkable record in Washington, where even the national government gets entangled in the laws affecting labor and construction. Pushing the work to a speedy termination and taking possession of the Memorial Hall far in advance of the time generally named, Mrs. Scott saved the society a tidy sum in the rental of a great suite of offices. During this same busy juncture of time, she has begun the reorganization of the business affairs of the society in the effort to place it on the same plane as that of other corporate