‘Thumb Nail Sketches of Women Workers’ from Progressive Woman. Vol. 3 No. 29. October, 1909.

ANITA C. BLOCK. Anita C. Block is another young woman who has force of character enough to make herself felt in the world of affairs. She can address a big audience of people, write an article, or conduct a study class with equal grace and intelligence. Comrade Block is editor of “Woman’s Sphere,” a department of interest to women in the New York Call, is secretary of the Socialist Woman’s society of New York, and always an active member of the Socialist local of her city.

GRACE D. BREWER. As “Army” editor of the Appeal to Reason, the work of Comrade Grace Brewer falls under about 300,000 pairs of eyes every week of the year. Besides editing the “Army,” she is secretary and chief stenographer to the managing editor, and knows all the multitudinous ins and outs of the life of a great Socialist paper. Comrade Brewer is also a successful propagandist, having accompanied her husband on a speaking tour through Iowa last spring, where she got her first experience as a “soap boxer.” She is a member of Local Girard, and of the woman’s committee of Girard.

CAROLINE LOWE. Caroline Lowe has spent most of her life in the school room, first as pupil, and last as teacher. For a number of years she has taught the graded branches in the schools of Kansas City, and held the position of vice president of the Teachers’ association of that city. Awakening, however, to the inequality of things about her, she finally became interested in Socialism, and for more than a year has been lecturing with great success in Kansas and Oklahoma, organizing the women of both states into committees of the Socialist party, besides carrying on regular party work.

CORINNE S. BROWN. Always there are the dear old warriors. Corinne Brown is one of them. Not old in years, but old in the Socialist movement, and brave and strong for the Socialist movement. Born in the very heart of Chicago, spending her life amidst the ups and downs of that rapidly-growing metropolis. Comrade Brown learned to tight with a vigor and persistency unusual to woman. Her fearlessness in time of storm and stress led Eugene Debs to christen her the “Stormy Petrel.” A thorough woman’s woman, she has also · been prominent in club work and in the Suffrage movement. She is an active member of Local Chicago.

LUELLA TWINING. Luella Twining is well known to readers of Socialist papers as the tireless worker in the case of Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone. She is a Denver woman and a voter, and believes in the right of woman to the franchise, which subject she often speaks upon, though her favorite theme is the economic freedom of the entire working class-or Socialism. Comrade Twining is at present making speeches in California in defense of the Fred Warren case, and in her inimical manner is creating sympathy for the “fighting editor” of the Appeal wherever she goes.

MAY McDONALD STRICKLAND. Comrade May Strickland joined the Socialist Labor party in 1896, and has progressed through all phases of service into the Socialist movement. She has worked in six states, has been chosen delegate to state and national conventions, and was twice elected as state Secretary of Indiana, where she is at present a member of Local Anderson, and a tireless worker in the Woman’s Socialist society of that city. She is a graduate of Horace Mann college, Yellow Springs, Ohio, and of the Muncie College of Dramatic Art.

MRS. J.C. HOGAN. Mrs. Hogan is a dues-paying member of the Socialist party and thoroughly believes in the women element and work in and for the Socialist party. She was one of the first to favor organizing and interesting the women when first proposed in New York, where she was then living. She believes that Socialist women can be a great help, not only in educational work for Socialism, but also in devising ways and means for raising funds for the Socialist party.

LUELLA KREHBIEL. Luella Krehbiel was for many years state organizer for the Socialist party of Kansas, so great is her ability as a speaker that competent critics have called her the Hypatia of the Socialist movement. For the past two years Comrade Krehbiel has been chaperoning her daughter in New York who is making quite a success as an actress in that city.

INEZ C. DECKER. Inez C. Decker is one of the active women of the Los Angeles movement. She got her start in the labor unions of St. Louis and is still interested in the union movement. She was active in the free speech fight in Los Angeles and was one of the several women who went to jail for this cause. Comrade Decker is a practicing physician.

MARY WILSHIRE. Mary Wilshire is the editor of the Women’s department in Wilshire’s Magazine, and president of the Woman’s National Progressive league. She is a clever writer, and is interesting as a speaker. At present she is touring the country with Comrade Gaylord Wilshire, in their automobile, from which they are making Socialist speeches.

MRS. MAYNARD SHIPLEY. Comrade Maynard Shipley is associate editor and business manager of the Oakland World, a bright Socialist paper published at Oakland. She is a woman of high education and unusual intellectual qualities, and all of her talents are devoted to Socialist propaganda.

ROSE PASTOR STOKES. Rose Pastor Stokes is known not only as the young woman of the Ghetto who married a millionaire philanthropist, but she also has a record as a most interesting writer and speaker. She is an ardent Socialist, and hopes to make everyone else one, to which end she is devoting her talents.

HELEN UNTERMANN. Helen Untermann has always been closely associated with her husband, Ernest Untermann, in all of his scientific writings and translations, and is naturally well up on scientific Socialism. She is a revolutionist, and interested in the progress of woman.

JANET FENIMORE. Janet Fenimore is the young college girl who last spring won second honors in the Indiana state oratorical contest at Indianapolis. Her recitation, “The Social Revolution,” created quite a furor being widely quoted by the city papers. She became a Socialist while teaching in one of the out-lying schools in her home city, where she came in contact with the poor children of the factory districts. Her oratorical powers are unusual, and she is in great demand as a speaker. She was one of the state organizers during the summer, but is again at her student’s work at Earlham college, from which she will graduate in 1910. After that the world will hear more from this promising young Socialist.

META L. STERN. A way back in the days of Marx and Engels, the days of the old “International.” Meta L. Stern’s parents belonged to the Socialist party. Her advent into this world, then, was under a strictly revolutionary roof tree. Very few Socialists have the memories of grand old Socialist leaders, such as Comrade Stern knew in her early childhood, as they gathered about her father’s hearth stone, discussing the problems of the day. Comrade Stern has naturally developed into an ardent party member, is a clear, logical speaker, and the editor of a woman’s department in the New Yorker Volkzeitung.

MARTHA A. PORTER. Martha A. Porter is known throughout Louisiana as “the little Socialist.” Like a good many small persons she has a big soul and a fearless spirit, and staid old New Orleans is wiser along Socialist lines for her having lived in it. She is a prominent member of the Era club, and never loses an opportunity to tell the women members that there are economic reasons for present-day evils that only Socialism can wipe out. Comrade Porter is, of course, a dues paying party member.

ALLETHA HAYHURST HART. As a speaker and organizer Alletha Hart has always “made good.” This means that she won her audiences and had excellent financial success in her work. Vicissitudes and early loss of her father. threw her into the industrial struggle where she gained at first-hand a knowledge of the hardships that working people must undergo. Marriage and motherhood came early, and concern over her own child’s future aroused her to rebellion against the crimes committed against the children of the working class. She is a member of Local Anderson, Ind., and of the Socialist Woman’s society of that city.

FLORENCE A. WATTLES. During the national campaign of 1908 Florence A. Wattles, of Elwood, Ind., did valiant service on the soap box. Her ability to forge ahead as well as her wealth of golden hair won her the name of Indiana’s Red Special, by which title the Indiana comrades still like to call her. By a referendum vote at the close of the state convention last spring she was elected assistant state organizer. When the state organizer resigned the executive committee elected her to fill his place. She made a successful tour of the state under the direction of the state secretary, organizing many new locals and putting new life into the old ones. She resigned her position in order to enter the Valparaiso university, where she will take a full business course and special work in history, English and economics.

ANDREA VILLARREAL GONZOLEZ. The Socialist movement is international in character. Little Andrea Gonzalez is no less our comrade from the fact that she is of another race and country. Closely connected with the Mexican revolutionists in this country, Andrea has suffered the heartaches, the poverty and suspense of the hunted and oppressed. The Socialists of America are with her in sympathy, as are the comrades of the whole world.

EDITH WRIGLEY. Comrade Edith Wrigley is one of the bright young women of Toronto, Canada, who recognizes the evils from which mode our civilization is suffering, and who has had the intelligence and the temerity to join with the forces that are making for better conditions. She is an active member of the Socialist local of Toronto, takes great interest in the woman’s study club of that city, and is doing good work at home in training her little ones to tread the paths of progress and enlightenment. May Canada give to the Socialist movement more Edith Wrigleys.

THERESA MALKIEL. Theresa Malkiel is well known to the readers of The Progressive Woman through her interesting articles which appear frequently in its columns. Long before the advent of The P. W., however, she was active in Socialist work. Prior to her Socialist work, she was active as a union member. In 1893 she joined the S.L.P., and was one of its delegates to the first convention held in New York City. In 1899 she left the S.L.P., joining the Socialist party. She is at present organizer of the Woman’s Socialist society of New York, and literature agent of Local Yonkers.

GEORGIA NORTHRUP. Georgia Northrup has her own peculiar style of doing propaganda work-it is the distribution of Socialist literature. She takes bundles of Socialist dailies and other periodicals under her arm, and proceeds to visit the business houses and the homes of the people, handing out a paper, with an appropriate remark, to create interest. She is a member of Local Elliottville (N.Y.), and an ardent worker.

The Socialist Woman was a monthly magazine edited by Josephine Conger-Kaneko from 1907 with this aim: “The Socialist Woman exists for the sole purpose of bringing women into touch with the Socialist idea. We intend to make this paper a forum for the discussion of problems that lie closest to women’s lives, from the Socialist standpoint”. In 1908, Conger-Kaneko and her husband Japanese socialist Kiichi Kaneko moved to Girard, Kansas home of Appeal to Reason, which would print Socialist Woman. In 1909 it was renamed The Progressive Woman, and The Coming Nation in 1913. Its contributors included Socialist Party activist Kate Richards O’Hare, Alice Stone Blackwell, Eugene V. Debs, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and others. A treat of the journal was the For Kiddies in Socialist Homes column by Elizabeth Vincent.The Progressive Woman lasted until 1916.

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