THE COURIER
3
confined to the unpublished considera
tion of the advisory board and the di
rectors' meetings. The subject will be
discussed with more or less feeling, and
each delegate who expects to go should
endeavor to discover the opinion held
by the majority of the club she will
represent Owing to the peculiar ret
icence still exhibited by club mem
bers in regard to publicly expressing
an opinion before a vote is taken, this
information is somewhat difficult to
obtain, and a personal canvass is not
often convenient. But after a formal
vote is taken and announced it is quite
easy for a close observer to discover
he opinions of each indlldual. And as
that is all the delegate desires to
know, the means are immaterial.
It is not the old subject of slavery,
the heroic attitude of the Massachu
setts club members and their insistence
upon teaching their southern sisters
liberality and catholicity to the con
trary. It Is a question of expediency,
Mrs. Robert Burdette, while traveling
in the south, met Bishop Grant who
was on his way by invitation to the
White house to confer with President
Roosevelt. She asked him the ques
tion: "Can the white club women bet
ter serve the women of your race by
bringing them into their organiza
tion?" The bishop answered: "Madam,
as it always benefits the lower to as-5
soclate with .the higher, it would cer
tainly help our colored women to come
into the association of white women;
but the question' the white club women
have to decide is how they can best
serve womankind at large. Can they
best do this by turning the back on the
white club women of the south, who
need the national organization in their
development, and extending the hand
to the colored women, or by holding on
to the southern white women and con
tinuing to help, as In the past, the
colored women?" That Is the issue
which presents Itself at this stage.
This is the point. The bishop is right.
It is not a question of emancipation.
Are the few hundred colored. women
who would come into the federation
worth the thousands of white women
who would resign and organize a feder
ation of their own south of Mason and
Dixon's line?
Under such circumstances the south
would be represented in the federation
only by colored women and the friend
ships and Interests which have begun
to unite the north and the south by p.
stronger bond than the constitution,
would be torn asunder. Other interests
and friendships would doubtless form
again but the south would then have
reason to suspect the sincerity and
warmth of our friendship. The colored
women have repeatedly said that they
did not care to belong to the white
woman's clubs. Urged by the strenu
ously insistent women of Massachu
setts, enough colored women have been
Induced to appeal for membership in
the general federation to make it likely
that the meeting in Los Angeles will
be an occasion for violent discussion
between the champions of admission
and Its opponents. Triumph for the
proponents would be empty. It would
be followed by the secession of the
southern states and the federation
would be crippled In numbers and In
potential service, the greatest and
most Important phase of which is the
cultivation of acquaintance and sym
pathy between the different parts of
this republic.
After the last meeting of the federa
tion at Milwaukee where the burning
question was not settled but deferred,
the Massachusetts state federation
adopted a resolution to the effect that
the general federation should be com
posed of delegates from state federa
tions, each state being left free to con
trol its own membership. Thus Mas
sachusetts might admit colored clubs
and Georgia might exclude them.
Then the executive board of the
Georgia state federation adopted a
resolution to be presented to the board
of directors of the general federation.
According to this plan, state federa
tions are not represented in the na
tional body but.individual clubs send a
delegate apiece.
To reconcile if possible these oppos-
ing views the general executive board
recommended a conference between
Georgia and Massachusetts for the
purpose of effecting a compromise.
The conference was held In New York
on February 6 and 7, 1902. The resolu
tions were discussed in a spirit of
peace. The Wednesday club of St.
Louis, one of the strongest and most
progressive clubs In the -country, sug
gested to the delegates that the color
question be settled by an application
of the principle of state rights, without
reorganization, and the resolution pro
visionally accepted by the representa
tives of Massachusetts and Georgia
was an embodiment of the suggestion:
"Resolved, That the color question be
settled without reorganization by the
strict application of the doctrine of
state rights, Individual club member
ship In the general federation to re
main as it Is."
Perhaps the Georgia and the Massa
chusetts delegates represent the most
willful and bigoted of the two extreme
views. If they can agree upon a com
promise it is likely that the federation
composed of a large majority of west
ern women will be able to invent a
resolution that will satisfy the exigent
passion for reforming other people and
calm the deep-seated prejudices of a
people whose problem we can not set
tle for them.
The Oleomargarine BUI
In a general way there is a great
deal of indignation expressed concern
ing the adulteration of foods and the
passing off on innocent customers a
cheaper article at the price of that for
which It is substituted. But when it
comes to the point of protecting the
buyer, the manufacturer is at the el
bow of the congressman to warn him
that he Is about to commit a great In
justice against an Industry which has
built this country up and made it rich
and courted among countries. The
buyers are far, far away attending to
business. In this case it is doubtful if
the butter-buyer would have been pro
tected against the manufacturer of
butterlne If it had not been for the
fact that the latter composition Is an
Imitation of butter and lessens Its sale.
Reforms are accomplished through the
operation of the law of selfishness.
There was a representative, probably
a number of representatives, of the
great creameries at Washington while
the oleomargarine bill was In the rap
Ids. The arguments in congress men
tioned the consumer. The consumer,
in fact, had the place of honor. The
creamery man's triumph is to the good
of the consumer's stomach, pocket
book and faith In the market. But the
consumer did not figure In the private
discussions of the reasons for and
against the bill. He was prominent
only In the discussions strictly for
publication and the gallery. It was
strictly a captains' battle, and the
creamery captains won.
The Sunday School Addrm
It Is a discouraging aspect of femi
nine human nature that ninety-nine
women out of a hundred mount the
platform to exhort their fello -women.
Their audience may be as traveled, as
cultured, as bent upon reform and up
on doing good as they are themselves,
but they do not recognize that. Ninety
nine women adopt the tone of a mis
sionary, a tactless missionary address
ing benighted heathen. The hundredth
conceals her missionary purpose under
a veil of humor or of sarcasm. At any
rate the hundredth woman does not
make the mistake of underrating the
moral purpose and habit as well as the
Intelligence of her audience. A recent
address delivered by a prominent club
woman might have been delivered fifty
years ago by the conventional Sunday
school spell-binder to an unsophisticat
ed Sunday-school. She Is the wife of
a once wellknown newspaper man and
his popularity is an introduction to the
good graces of an audience; but the
kind of talk she addresses to club
women will not for long be numbered
among the things that make life tlre-
-t
'JOHN H. MOCKETT, JR.
John H. Mockett, jr., one of the successful insurance men of Lincoln,
wasjborn In Genesee, Waukesha county, Wisconsin, in December, 1860.
His 'parents came to Cuming county, Nebraska, in 1872. Here Mr. Mock
etiattended the public schools and later for two years was a teacher.
In 1880 he came to Lincoln where he has since remained.
In politics Mr. Mockett has made a reputation. He was elected coun
cllman'from the Seventh ward in 1S97 and again in 1S99, without opposi
tion from either party, and was president of that body from April to De
cember, 1900, resigning his seat. to serve In the house of representa
tives of the state legislature in 1901. He was chairman of the revenue
and taxation committee and was a member of the insurance committee.
Mr. Mockett introduced the first bill In the lower house and was the
author of several measures that ran the gauntlet of the legislature,
among which was the new Lincoln charter. He also displayed marked
ability as a parliamentarian and was looked upon as one of the leaders
of the republican majority in the house.
After studying, three years in Nebraska university Mr. Mockett, In
1883, became a member of the firm of J. H. Mockett & Sons, gen
eral agents of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company, the
fourth In size in the United States. When the agency was established In
1S81 by J. H. Mockett, sr., the compaiy had in force in the state less than
one-half million of insurance. On December 31st last the amount had In
creased to $6,655,000. The firm offices In Lincoln In the Burr block.
some. The high-school girl Is no longer
allowed In an up-to-date school to
write that sort of a valedictory. Being
young and u female, she is of course
tempted to reform the world; but her
teachers tell her that there are other
preachers who have taken the full
theological course, and that It Is more
appropriate for her to write about
something she knows about and to tell
It In ns modest a manner as her schol
arship and very beautiful Swiss muslin
gown will allow her to.
There Is no one who dares stop the
traveling club woman who feels that
she has a message to deliver to the
women of whatever place Bhe finds
herself In. The type Is Irrepressible
and the ennui she disseminates is unin
tentional. She thinks she Is the angel
of sweetness and light. Nny, Nay,
Pauline.
ThcNameuke
The April Llpplncott's contains a
poem by Miss Wllla Cather, a Nebras
ka girl and a graduate of the state
university. In a line or two Is the
picture of the confederate and the fed
eral graves side by side and the vision
of the youngster of today revisiting
the battlefield where lies his mother'B
brother who will always be young be
cause he died when he was young. The
nephew has kept In his heart the story
of the young patron saint who died
for a lost cause. To paraphrase It Is
to make prose of poetry. The vivid
ness and the realization of youth and
the passion of patriotism and of kin
dred Is what makes it such good
poetry; but the versification also Is
clever and musical.
THE NAMESAKE.
To W. L. B., of the Thirty-Fifth Virginia
By Wllla Slbert Cather.
"VIgesimum post annum In Obscurum
correpto lvcem vlgeslml gaudens percl
plsse." Two by two and three by three
Missouri lies-by Tennessee;
Row on row, a hundred deep,
Maryland and Georgia sleep.
And the wistful poplars sigh
Where Virginia's thousands lie.
Somewhere there among the stones,
All alike, that mark their bones.
Lies a lad beneath the pine
Who once bore a name like mine
Flung his splendid life away
Long before I saw the day.
Once my mother told me how
Hair like mine grew on his brow.
He was twenty to a day
When he got his Jacket gray.
He was barely twenty-one
When they found him by his gun.
Tell me. Uncle by the pine.
Had you such a girl as mine.
When you put her arms away
Riding to the wars that day?
Were her Hds so cold. Instead
You must needs to kiss the lead?
Had the bugle, lilting gay.
Sweeter things than she to say?
Were there no gay fellows then.
You must seek these silent men?
' Was your luck so bad at play
You must game your bones away?
Ah! you lad with hair like mine.
Sleeping by the Georgia pine,
I'd be quick to quit the sun
Just to help you hold your gun.
And I'd leave my girl to share
Your six feet of glory there.
Proud It Is I am to know
In my veins there still must flow
There to burn and bite alway.
That proud blood you threw away;
And I'll be winner at the game
Enough for two who bore the name.
The Fate of The Loquackx
General Grant's military talent would
not, of Itself, have been sufficient to In
sure success. Unless he had had pow
er to keep still while all around him
were chattering and between times en
deavoring to make him chatter, it is
likely that he would not have been ap
pointed to the supreme command of
the army in time of war. The study of
the characters and habits of men in
charge of trusts or of large and com
plicated systems of any kind will repay
youth better than attention to the ad
vice to young men who wish to succeed
written by these very men. The writ
ten advice Is honest enough, but Mr.
Schwab or Mr. Pierepont Morgan or
Mr. Harriman are not literary men.
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