four large volumes. Mrs. Elnora M. Babcock (N. Y.), chairman of the Press Committee, reported 93,600 general articles sent out; 3,665 special articles, much plate matter, many personal sketches, photographs, etc., and a number of new papers added to her list.
Mrs. Maud Nathan read the report of Mrs. Florence Kelley, chairman of the Committee on Industrial Problems Affecting Women and Children. As executive secretary of the National Consumers' League Mrs. Kelley was well qualified to speak and she gave an account of the labor laws in the southern States affecting girls between 16 and 21, who are neither children nor women, which was heartbreaking. Pennsylvania was equally guilty but most of the northern States had improved their laws, Illinois leading; in none, however, were they wholly adequate. She urged the appointment of more women factory inspectors, who were now employed in only eight States, and scored "the default of the prosperous women of the country," saying: "It may be said that women are not morally responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs, since they do not make the laws, but the facts do not altogether justify this excuse. The child-labor legislation which has been achieved through the efforts of women during the past ten years shows that women can do very much even without the ballot in the way of securing legislation on behalf of women and children, and it remains true that women buy the product of the work of women and children far more than do men. .... It is my hope that this great and influential national suffrage organization may so influence public opinion that a series of beneficent results will soon become visible."
An Evening with the Philanthropists was one of the most enjoyable during the week. The Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer, of whom Felix Adler, head of the Ethical Culture Society of New York, was quoted as saying: "She is the only woman with whom I would share my platform," was the first speaker. In considering New Professions in Philanthropic Work for Women, she said: "Charity is old but social science is new and it is the uniting of the two that makes modern philanthropy and that is what opens these new professions. Charity is supposed to come by nature but the knowledge of how to deal with its problems does not.
