Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/733

692 Union Signal and Mrs. Willard gone to Germany to reside, the position of editor-in-chief was given to Miss West who moved to Chicago to accept it. As editor of that paper, the organ of the National and the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, her responsibilities were immense but they were always carried with a steady hand and an even head. She met the demands of her enormous constituency with a remarkable degree of poise. A paper having a circulation of nearly one hundred thousand among earnest women, many of them in the front rank of intelligence and advancement of thought and all of them on fire with an idea, needs judicious and strong, as well as thorough and comprehensive editing. This the Union Signal under Miss West has had and the women of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union repeatedly, in the most emphatic manner, endorsed her policy and conduct of the paper. Soon after she went to Chicago some women of that city, both writers and publishers, organized the Illinois Woman's Press Association, its avowed object being to provide a means of communication between women writers and to secure the benefits resulting from organized efforts. Miss West was made president and filled the position for several consecutive terms. Her work in that sphere was a unifying one. She brought into harmony many conflicting elements and helped to carry the association through the perils which always beset the early years of an organization. She had an unusual capacity for vicarious suffering; the woes of others were her woes and the knowledge of injustice or cruelty wrung her heart. That made her an effective director of the protective agency for women and children, but the strain of that work proved too great and she stepped outside its directorship, although remaining an ardent upholder of the agency. Miss West in 1892 visited California, the Sandwich Islands, and Japan in the interests of temperance work. She died in Kanazawa, Japan, first of December, 1892.

Mrs. Dora V. Wheelock of Nebraska was one of the earliest women temperance workers of that state. In 1885 she became an influential worker for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, serving for several years as local president in Beatrice, and three years as president of the Gage County Union. She was state superintendent of press work and reporter for the Union Signal for Nebraska. She has written much, her articles appearing in the Youth's Companion, Union Signal and other publications, and in every way she has accomplished all that a variously gifted woman might, as one of the advance guard in the cause of temperance.

Mrs. Mary Bannister Willard, sister-in-law of Francis Willard, was called to assume the editorship of the Signal, the organ of the Illinois Woman's Christian Temperance Union and during years of successful work for it she displayed remarkable ability both in the editorial sanctum and as organizer and platform speaker. The Signal under her leadership came quickly to the front and it was said that no other paper in America was better edited. But Mrs. Willard's health had become impaired from the constant strain of overwork and with her two daughters she went to Europe. In the autumn of 1886 she opened in Berlin, Germany, her American Home School for Girls, unique in its way and which for years she managed on the original plan with much success. It combined the best features of an American school with special advantage in German and