The National Council of Jewish Women was organized in Chicago in 1893, as a result of the Congress of Jewish Women, which was a branch of the Parliament of Religions held during the Columbian Exposition. Its objects are to bring about closer relations among Jewish women and a means of prosecuting work of common interest; to further united efforts in behalf of Judaism through a better knowledge of the Bible, Jewish literature and conditions. It has given much attention to social reform through preventive philanthropy and it affiliates with many organizations of women interested in the public welfare. The Council conducts manual training and industrial schools, sewing and household schools, kitchen gardens, kindergartens, mothers' clubs, boys' clubs, circulating libraries, reading rooms, free baths, employment bureaus, milk and ice depots for the poor, crippled children's classes and many other philanthropies.
During the Spanish-American War the Council contributed about $10,000 in money and goods, and in several cities was the first organization to undertake this relief work. It has sixty-three sections in various States and 6,000 members. Mrs. Hannah G. Solomon has been president continuously.
The Women's National Indian Association was organized in March, 1879, for the civilization, education, enfranchisement and Christianization of the native Indians of the United States; the first society devoted exclusively to Indian advancement, to ask and labor for all these; to demand from the Government lands in severalty, citizenship, industrial teaching and education for the aborigines (1881), and these were granted in the passage of the Dawes Severalty Bill in February, 1887.
Besides its important work politically, beginning a movement which has gained 60,000 Indian citizens, at least 25,000 of whom pay taxes and 10,000 of whom voted at the last elections, it has opened directly or indirectly Christian, educational and industrial instruction at forty-seven stations, or in as many tribes; has builded many Indian homes, starting civilized industries in these and in tribes, furnishing agricultural implements, sewing machines, looms, stock, etc., from a loan fund of $12,000. It has various other departments of help for red men—schools, libraries, temperance teaching, etc.—and has expended in all these (besides sending missionary boxes of supplies for the aged and helpless into seventy tribes) from $15,000 to $28,000 annually. It has now a House of Industries where women and girls are taught sewing, knitting, weaving, etc. Altogether forty-one buildings have been erected.
The Association has nearly 100 branches in between thirty and forty States and Territories and has several thousand members. Mrs. Amelia Stone Quinton was general secretary from the beginning for eight years, and has since been president continuously.
The National League of Women Workers was organized April 29, 1897, in the interest of working women and their clubs. It is intended that the League shall stand as a central bureau of information, offering counsel and help when sought, but not placing restrictions upon any club. It has issued various publications, a monthly magazine, The Club Worker, a collection of songs, one of practical talks, another of plays and of entertainments; also a pamphlet entitled How to Start a Club. It has made a collection of all publications issued by the various auxiliary State associations and clubs, which are distributed free of charge to members. Between 8,000 and 9,000 publications are annually sold and distributed. The secretary each year visits from fifty to one hundred clubs to acquaint them with the work of other similar organizations. The League has collected data relating to the management of lunch clubs, vacation houses and co-operative homes for working women.
It is made up of five associations, and includes 100 clubs in Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with a membership of over 8,000.
The National Christian League for the Promotion of Social Purity was organized in New York in October, 1885, and a national charter was obtained in 1889. Its object is to elevate opinion respecting the nature and claims of morality, with its equal obligation upon men and women, and to secure a practical recognition of its precepts on the part of the individual, the family and the nation; to organize the efforts of Christians in preventive, educational, reformatory and legislative effort in the interest of Social Purity. It uses every righteous means to free women and girls from financial dependence upon men, not only by seeking to raise the status of domestic service, but by teaching the advantages of self-support in every kind of legitimate business. During the past six years the League has secured employment directly for 3,300 applicants; it has supplied temporal and social benefits to thousands of distressed women; furnished more than 5,000,000 pages of literature helpful to all the people; prevented and stopped immoral shows and impure exhibitions; clothed the naked, fed the hungry and housed the shelterless.
The League has Hospital Auxiliaries, Social Culture Clubs, Industrial Homes with training for Italians and other foreigners; members in nearly every State and Territory—in Europe, China, Japan, India and South America. It was founded by Mrs. Elizabeth B. Grannis, who has been its president continuously.
The Young Ladies' National Mutual Improvement Association was organized at Salt Lake City in June, 1869. Associations were formed in different States, and these were gradually grouped into "stake" or county societies, each one presided over by a president and her board of workers. On June 19, 1880, an organization of these "stakes" was effected and a general president elected. The object is mutual improvement for all, in spiritual, mental and physical conditions.