vigorous crusade. When families of
eight or ten men, women and children are all huddled promiscuously
together in a single apartment, a condition common among our poor all
over the land, there is little hope of inculcating morality and
modesty. And yet in spite of the fateful heritage of slavery, in spite
of the manifold pitfalls and peculiar temptations to which our girls
are subjected, and though the safeguards usually thrown around
maidenly youth and innocence are in some sections entirely withheld
from colored girls, statistics compiled by men not inclined to falsify
in favor of my race show that immorality among colored women is not so
great as among women in some foreign countries who are equally
ignorant, poor and oppressed.

Believing that it is only through the home that a people can become
really good and truly great the National Association has entered that
sacred domain. Homes, more homes, better homes, purer homes is the
text upon which sermons have been and will be preached. There has been
a determined effort to have heart to heart talks with our women that
we may strike at the root of evils, many of which lie at the
fireside. If the women of the dominant race, with all the centuries
of education, culture and refinement back of them, with all the wealth
of opportunity ever present with them, feel the need of a mother's
congress, that they may be enlightened upon the best methods of
rearing their children and conducting their homes, how much more do
our women, from whom shackles have but yesterday been stricken, need
information on the same vital subjects. And so the association is
working vigorously to establish mothers' congresses on a small scale,
wherever our women can be reached.

From this brief and meager account of the work which has been and is
still being accomplished by colored women through the medium of their
clubs, it is easy to observe how earnest and effective have been their
efforts to elevate their race. No people need ever despair whose women
are fully aroused to the duties which rest upon them and are willing
to shoulder responsibilities which they alone can successfully assume.
The scope of our endeavors is constantly widening. Into the various
channels of generosity and beneficence we are entering more and more
every day.

Some of our women are now urging their clubs to establish day
nurseries, a charity of which there is an imperative need. Thousands
of our wage-earning mothers w