Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The board of lady managers, pursuant to a call, met in the city of St. Louis, April 28, 1903, and, as has already been stated, the chairman read before the board the report from which the above extracts are taken, on the work of the committee on woman's work performed in St. Louis. The president of the board of lady managers at this April meeting created several new committees, viz, an executive committee, an entertainment committee, a legislative committee, and a committee for a day nursery or creche. The creating of these committees practically took from the hands of the committee on woman's work all special work.

A meeting of the board of lady managers was called in St. Louis on December 15, 1903; at this meeting it became necessary to elect a new president of the board, and conditions had so changed that it became necessary to add several new committees to those already formed, one being the committee on awards, to further develop the work of the board of lady managers.

The only money the board of lady managers had ever received to conduct their work was an appropriation of $3,000 from the treasurer of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, part of which had been expended, so that all work of the board of lady managers was absolutely suspended for the want of funds. It became necessary for the legislative committee to proceed to Washington to secure money to carry out their plans. The result of the labors of the legislative committee has been ably told in the report of the chairman of that committee, Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter.

During the December meeting, and after the adjournment of the board, the work which seemed of the most vital interest, and the one which lay nearest to the hearts of every member of the board of lady managers, was the construction, equipment, and management of a creche or day nursery. The chairman of the committee on woman's work remained with the president of the board in St. Louis for ten days after the adjournment of the board, meeting the executive committee of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, endeavoring to arrange for the construction and equipment of a day nursery. The Exposition Company assured this committee that they would construct for the lady managers a building that would cost $30,000, and give $5,000 toward equipment, and that the day nursery would be self-sustaining with the possibility of an income above the expense payable to the Exposition Company.

It now became evident that if the board of lady managers was to have a day nursery, they must give up the idea of a purely philanthropic institution and enter the field as money makers.

After two weeks of patient labor, it was made apparent that if a day nursery was built, all expenses for furnishing and maintaining it must be paid for out of the funds appropriated by Congress for the use of the board of lady managers in their various works. The president of the board of lady managers offered to contribute $15,000 for the furnishing and maintenance of this day nursery out of the $100,000 set aside for the use of the lady managers, if the Exposition Company would free them from any further financial liability. This the Exposition Company refused to do.

The Exposition Company further informed us they had already let a concession for a model playground which would practically cover the work to be performed by the day nursery, and that this concession had agreed to care for each child at the rate of 25 cents per day, and that the board of lady managers could not conduct a day nursery without charging a fee for the care of each child. Thus the day nursery was taken out of the hands of the committee on woman's work.

As chairman of this committee, I can not bring this report to a close without expressing the very deep and heartfelt disappointment of the committee on woman's work, and I may add the president and every member of the board of lady managers, that circumstances over which we had no control forced us to abandon this cherished project of a model day nursery.

As the duties of the board of lady managers became more apparent and diversified, and the work evolved and developed, it became necessary to specialize. The work of the committee on woman's work ceased to be performed by a large committee under this name, but was carried on to the close of the exposition by committees composed of the various members of the board.

In closing this report it would appear at first that the committee on woman's work stood for very little and had done very little toward the success of the board of lady managers. However, this committee, under other names, did successfully perform a large amount of philanthropic and social work.