We have met this afternoon to pay a loving tribute to one of the
departed of Sorosis, who was for many years its President, and for
years its Honorary President.
The loss is not ours alone, for our sorrow is shared by all clubwomen,
from Australia around the world to Alaska. Her position will always
remain unique. Whenever there comes a time for a great movement there
has always been a leader. The Revolution had its Washington; the
abolition of slavery its Lincoln; and so, when the time came for such
a movement among women, there were also leaders. Mrs. Croly remained,
throughout her life, an advocate of everything which was for the
betterment of women, and she died in the heart of the movement.
Her perception of the value of unity, of the advantage of organized
effort, was remarkable. Perhaps the generations beyond ours will think
of her most in that quality, but the women of our time will remember
her, as they loved her, for her ready sympathy and her unfailing
helpfulness to all women. Though departed, she is still with us, and
the beauty of her life remains, in that its influence is imperative.
Mrs. Croly had that particular sense of fellowship among women most
unusual. If you will stop to think, in our language you will find that
there are no words to express that thought, except those that are
masculine--fellowship, brotherhood, fraternity. Mrs. Croly, perhaps
more than any other woman in the world, had the sense of what
fellowship or fraternity meant in women, and although she sometimes
may have been called an idealist or sentimentalist, it is recognized
by many women that this thought must be abiding, for in a federation
it is the spirit that is current through it that keeps the federation
alive.
The last afternoon it was my privilege to be with Mrs. Croly we had a
long talk, and it seems to me, in looking back, that Mrs. Croly was
then leaving a message with me for all clubwomen. I never heard her
speak so eloquently. We talked of some of the problems of the General
Federation--its possible disruption. Mrs. Croly said: "It does not
matter; if anything happens that the General Federation should be
disrupted, another will be formed at once." She had absolute faith, if
not in a Divine Providence, that there was a possibility it was part
of the human scheme of development that must be carried on through the
Divine Will. So, if she left any message for the General Federation,
it was this: that whatever our personal opinions are, whatever we
think of any question, we are to think first of the life of the
General Federation; because in it is the great thought of the
fellowship and fraternity among women that is to bring us closer and
closer to the millennium.
[Illustration: MRS. CROLY at the age of 40. (About the time Sorosis
was inaugurated)]