A CHALLENGE TO THE PRESENT

     In the development of America, women have made a splendid record.  Three hundred years ago, when the Pilgrims landed on the stern and rockbound New England coast, it was the women -- The Anns and the Priscillas -- who kept hope and faith alive as the number of graves beneath the Plymouth cornfields grew and grew.  During pioneer days in solitary log cabins, women shared with their husbands, the constant danger of attack from hostile Indians.  They were not spared when the redskins descended upon the settlements with tomahawk and torch, as the stories of Ann Hutchinson, Hannah Dustin and many others indicate.  At the time of the Revolution, Molly Pitcher, taking her husband's  place in the fighting when he was grievously wounded, was not the only woman who showed courage and endurance.  Through the terrible winter at Valley Forge, when the cause of Washington and Jefferson seemed all but lost women in homes from Massachusetts to Georgia helped to keep the light of liberty burning.  Women bore their share of the burden in the settlement of the lands across the Alleghenies, in the fertile valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi.  And in the tragic days of the Civil War, in homes north and south, in hospitals and on battlefields, women took their part earnestly and courageously.  Never in any period of the country's history have they been found wanting.

     to-day the opportunities for woman's development and her ability to contribute toward the creation of a better world are greater than ever before.  At last all activities of life are open to her.  She is now free to choose the part she will play in the world's work.  Whatever part it may be, good health is essential.  Only because the women of pioneer days possessed clear minds and vigorous bodies were they able to take such and active part in the settlement of this country.  Their record is a challenge to you, a woman of the new  century.  But only as you are similarly qualified can you in the home and in the larger world outside meet this challenge of a glorious past by your achievement.