Centennial records of the women of Wisconsin

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CENTENNIAL  EECOEDS. 105
MES.   THOEP S  AVOEDS   OF  ACCEPTANCE.
"Women of Beloit: — AUow me to congratulate you upon the success Avith which the centennial enterprise is meeting, as organized and sustained by you. You are tiie first to receive the official recognition of the Women's State Centennial Exec¬ utive Committee of Wisconsin. You have organized the first centennial club out¬ side the capital city, thus endorsing and setting the seal of your approval upon this agreeable social feature of our work, which is distinctively Wisconsin in its origin. The prestige of your sanction wUl go far toward securing a state adoption, as weU as the national approval. I would also congratulate you that you have the honor to be represented by an able and efficient chairman, whose generous and discreet enthusiasm in this as in every cause whose interests she espouses, is sympathetically contagious. The women of the state committee are proud to know and to afliUate ^vith such women as have here represented tliemseh'es. It seems to me a matter of general congratulation that the women of Wisconsin may join hands and unite hearts in the labors preparatory to our grand centennial jubflee, from which we shall come forth better equipped for Ufe's duties and destiines. We have reason to expect that the coming generation wUl open up new fields of labor and accompUshment for women; fields in which the barriers of ignorance and prejudice shall have been swept away by the incoming tide of a liigher civfli- zation. Upon its bosom tvoman shall be more graciously and tenderly borne to her appointed place. Problems in her Ufe and experience inexpUcable, from her present standpoint, avUI there come to the Ught of a more intelUgent solution. We have to wateh and to wait, while we also work. Our statesmen did not pilan to Uberate the slave when our men went forth to the battle field. Yielding to the fearful necessities of a war which God permitted, that He might open an avenue of escape to the oppressed and grant absolution to the oppressor, they did not even discern the finger of destiny pointing Avith unerring certainty to this great national culnnnation. They saw only, as they were forced step by step to higher levels, the Ught winch freedom was faintly shedding from the distant horizon of peace. As women we see and feel, just what, Ave know not. We think we dimly discern the daAvning Ught of a better day for our chfldren and our chUdren's children, and we lay hold upon the inA'isible with a faith commensurate Avith our love and desire for them. We haU this golden opportunity; we Usten to the voice of tins united appeal with quickened sensibflities, expecting from its results a guaranty for the futm-e of womanhood. We honor ourselves, our famflies and our posterity, in honoring the centennial anniversary of our beloA'ed country. We cannot labor inspired by its sentiments, Avithout being the better and the happier for it,   We