NENTAL CONGRESS, NATIONAL SOCIETY DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

HELD AT MEMORIAL CONTINENTAL HALL, WASHINGTON, D. C. APRIL 15-20, 1918

MONDAY, MORNING SESSION, APRIL 15, 1918.

The morning session was called to order by the President General, Mrs. George Thacher Guernsey, at 10.15 o'clock.

THE PRESIDENT GENERAL: By the authority vested in me as President General of the Daughters of the American Revolution, I now declare the Twenty-seventh Continental Congress in session.

The Congress rose and read in unison the following pledge, entitled "The American's Creed:"

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity, for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its constitution; to obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.

THE PRESIDENT GENERAL: We will now give the salute to our flag.

The Congress remained standing, and with hands raised to attention, gave the salute to the flag in the following words:

I pledge allegiance to my flag, and to the Republic for which it stands-one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice to all.

THE PRESIDENT GENERAL: We will now have the Scripture and prayer by our Chaplain General, Miss Elisabeth F. Pierce.

The Chaplain General read selected verses from Isaiah (6:1-8), also a few selected verses from the account of the great day of Pentecost, Acts 2, and offered the following prayer:

Our dear Heavenly Father, look upon these Thy children this morning. Our hearts are full of praise to Thee. May it be genuine and sincere for the conditions under which we live and find ourselves in this beautiful season of the year. We thank Thee for the glories of earth and the joys we have in this land, but now, O dear Father, our hearts are saddened by conditions elsewhere. We love the world, and we would desire to do our part in it.

We thank Thee for the spirit of our ancestors that called us into being. Are we daughters of the King as well as Daughters of the American Revolution? If indeed we are, we are prompted by the devotion of our fathers to do Thy will in a specific way, to help this nation stand, as it is now standing with the Allied nations, against wickedness in high places.

Dear Lord, we thank Thee for the trials we are suffering, for our deliverance we are approaching, and we realize that it is indeed a blessed thing to suffer with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. O God, make us love Thee and those who love Thee and seek to do Thy will on earth; and oh, dear Lord, give us the vision of Isaiah, who said "Here am I, send me."

Dear Father, may we at every step advance the work for Thee in this organization; and we pray Thee that the spirit of kindness and Thy Spirit shall so open our eyes this day, this week, that we may perfect the work that Thou didst call us for in this world. And we do thank Thee, our Father, that whatever our need or our danger underneath are the everlasting arms, and that Jesus Christ whom. Thou didst send to us is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We claim Thy promises here this morning, dear Father, for we know that they are sure, that they are steadfast, and never fail.

Bless the President General and all who are associated with her in the National Board, and the chapters throughout the country, every member. We pray for those who are not here but are sending us their good wishes and their prayers; their hearts are here today. Bless each woman who is permitted to be here as a delegate and to unite to serve in the Daughters of the American Revolution; and, dear Father, may each woman who is present be animated by the wisdom and the high spirit of our ancestors, the women of the Revolution.

We would ask for the vision that God gave to Isaiah, his servant of old. We would ask for a blessing on the whole Society, and that we may be filled with the right spirit-to love and to serve Thee.

We ask it for Jesus Christ's sake.

The Congress joined in repeating the Lord's Prayer.

THE PRESIDENT GENERAL: It may be of great interest to you to know that the gavel with which I called you to order this morning is the very gavel that called the first Continental Congress together-which was used by the first President General, Mrs. Harrison. (Applause.)

Escorted by Mrs. Mathew T. Scott, Mrs. Mary V. E. Cabell, the Honorary President Presiding, entered the auditorium and came to the stage. (Congress standing.)

THE PRESIDENT GENERAL: Members of the Congress, this is our Honorary President Presiding, Mrs. Cabell. (And as Mrs. Scott followed) Mrs. Scott needs no introduction; we bid her welcome. (Applause.)

Daughters of the American Revolution:

I greet and welcome you to the 27th Continental Congress of our Society. We are again met in our annual gathering but never before did our Congress meet under such world-wide conditions. We are living in a great and awful time. We are staggered when we contemplate what is involved in this tremendous struggle, and yet, we are glad to be alive in such an age, and to have some part in so magnificent an enterprise as now engages the liberty loving people of the whole world. Life now is solemn and majestic! Just to be living and having some worthy place in this world-upheaval is glorious.

Some complain of the high cost of living these days, but it is worth it!

Every day is crowded with such momentous events as would have made any past century epochal. No one can imagine what a day may bring forth. Nothing seems to be absolutely certain, except this: Right shall surely triumph! Peace shall come only to men of good will, and Kaiserism must go down before the righteous and outraged democracy of the world.

Whatever may be the changing, shifting scenes of today, we are sure that on some future morrow the great cause for which we are fighting shall permanently triumph.

The present administration of our Society has been facing difficult problems during its first year of responsibility. We have been busy adjusting our work to the business policy to which we dedicated ourselves.

We have successfully sought to improve the ways and means by which the work of our Society should be conducted. We have introduced some needed reforms and we think the results will justify the changes that have been wrought, as we have sought only the best good of the Society, and we have also sought to follow such methods of procedure as had been projected by previous administrations and proved of value.

We have also been finding our part in the great program of the war. We are in hearty accord with our nation in the stand it has taken. All party preferences, all petty politics, all personal piques, all petulant and puerile complaints against the Government we have put aside; and we have kept ever before us the fact that we can only win the war by the united efforts of all our people.

We at once placed all the forces of this great patriotic body of loyal women at the service of the Government. Whatever of proper and justifiable differences may exist among us as thinking women, we are tremendously in earnest in our united purpose to love our Country and defend it at any sacrifice of life or treasure.

Our task has been to discover into what channel should flow the great currents of energy which belong to our patriotic Society. Here are thousands of the best and brightest of American women! How shall they best promote all the fine and noble enterprises which the occasion creates and inspires?

The reports which will come before us will show that our Daughters have not been found wanting in this crucial hour. Like Kipling's ship, this great Patriotic Society has "found itself"-by cooperating with all other societies having common interests, and by methods peculiarly our own because of our history, organization, and genius; we have been adding our contribution to the vast immeasurable preparation which has gone forward with such unprecedented haste, in spite of annoying and perplexing delays.

So much has happened since last we assembled in this Memorial Continental Hall that it seems like a thousand years! Our part in all the year's history is one that gives no cause for apology, but rather occasion for pride. We may have failed in doing all our hearts prompted, but we have the consciousness of having honestly tried to make our contribution to the Nation's firm resolve, to "make the world safe for Democracy."

"We know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise," but we are set in our purpose to play our part in this great struggle in which Democracy is engaged.

The Daughters of the American Revolution see very clearly certain duties which they can perform and are determined in their purpose to fulfill them.

In the first place, our Society is absolutely behind the Government in its war program. This is no time to play the game of politics. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of our Army and Navy, and we are at war, and our only place is behind our Leader, and we show our loyalty by being unswervingly loyal to our chosen Commander. So long as our country is at war there is but one place for all loyal citizens, at the back of the President!

We have another responsibility to face. We must give unstintedly our praise and support to our gallant Allies. We are giving now some very belated aid. They were on the firing line for two and a half years, fighting our battle, before we really awakened to discover that it was our battle. They were very patient with us; they said no harsh words about us; they seemed to feel confident that when we awoke we would see our place and perform our duty. Now they are most tragically awaiting some full measure of contribution in men, ships, munitions, and food. We should be the last nation to criticise our Allies, as we should be the last nation now to boast concerning what we will do to the enemy when our opportunity comes. We have practically everything to learn from England and France in the way of modern warfare. Our modesty should be equal to the help we render them.

There is a most insidious propaganda among us today against which we should be on our guard. We have many citizens who have such a hatred for England that they seem willing to aid the enemy of the United States if only they can deal Britain a blow. They do not love Germany more, but hate England most! But we will not be deceived by them. Anyone who is England's enemy is now our enemy! We understand them. They were glad when disloyal Irishmen in Ireland struck England a blow when England was fighting Germany. Loyal Americans today know full well why the American Colonists rebelled against the mother country. The heart of old England was in sympathy with her English Colonists in America. But is was the Hanoverian King, George III, who could not speak English without a German accent, who tyrannically imposed unfair taxes on the Americans. He had to hire German soldiers to cross the seas to fight the English Colonists. True Englishmen in England would not stoop to the depths of such depravity.

During the American Revolution we were fighting a German King and his hirelings as we are fighting Germans today. Let me give you a sure sign by which to test traitors. When you hear one criticizing England, rest assured you are within the hearing of a Hun!

Our national motto today must be, "Love me, love my Ally."

We cannot overpraise the conduct of France ever since the German mad dog started for her throat. We too long misjudged the French nation. Her record in this war is unparallelled on the pages of history. France has made herself immortal. And Belgium-what figure is quite so heroic as that of King Albert, and what people ever passed through such sacrificial fires and remained so unafraid and so undaunted!

The women of America know how to love and admire such allies as these that we are proud to fight with in such a glorious warfare. The great task the Daughters of the American Revolution have assumed in restoring the village of Tilloloy will

not be given up until we have fulfilled our purpose and have given back to that suffering people their homes. We hope we may extend our labors in that good service and restore other places made waste by the devastating Hun.

The Daughters of the American Revolution see no finer way in which their devotion and loyalty can be expressed than by aiding in securing the Third Liberty Loan. To fail in securing it by a large popular subscription would be almost equal to the collapse of the Western battle line. It would make glad every enemy we have, both here and abroad. All spies and plotters here (and that under the protection of our flag) will be insidiously, with infinite finesse and sagacity, seeking to defeat this Loan-all this in order that it may appear that our citizens have no faith in our cause, and that our enemies abroad may think that we have practically acknowledged defeat. We pledge to the Government our utmost power to carry forward this Third Liberty Loan to such a victory that our enemies abroad will be dismayed and our enemies at home struck dumb.

The record of our Society during the past year in its relation to the Red Cross is a cause of pride. Hardly a chapter has failed to report some fine work done for that noble institution whose record is beyond praise. We have sought in every way possible to cooperate with it. At the beginning of the war it was utterly overwhelmed with such a volume of worries and responsibilities that the wonder is that it so readily adapted its organization to meet the vast scale of its duties and opportunities.

At first it was difficult to align all the organizations seeking to meet emergencies born of the war; but today we are all finding ourselves, and this Society assures the Red Cross Society that it will cooperate and aid in every way possible.

Our Society recognizes the distinct boundary lines which necessarily confines it to its own particular fields of activity. Yet every Daughter has been thrilled by what it has seen and heard of the work done by the Young Men's Christian Association, both at home and abroad, for the soldiers in camps and trenches. Their work has been simply incalculable, and without it, the present condition of our army and those of our allies would have been impossible.

We recognize that as war progresses these great agencies must be increasingly aided by money and workers, and every patriotic Daughter, regardless of religious preferences, will aid in every way these Protestant forces for good as well as the Roman Catholic agencies which are accomplishing so much for the morale and inspiration of their people. The patriotism and loyalty of Americans today know no boundary lines of creeds and churches.

I wish to voice again in words what has been so eloquently proclaimed by deeds during the past year. It is this: The Daughters of the American Revolution intend to continue, with redoubled assiduity and diligence, to lend all the force of its influence to the great task undertaken by the Food Administration. We might criticise certain uses to which bread-stuffs are being prostituted, and we could suggest to the Food Administration some methods of conservation which reach beyond the appeals so eloquently made to housewives and homekeepers involving sacrifices on the part of that portion of our population not eligible to membership in a Woman's Society, but so much has already been accomplished by that rare genius and true patriot, Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, and so much more is