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News Article: Sarah Platt-Decker, Denver
Image and text provided by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99021999/1908-01-26/ed-1/seq-19/ The Omaha Sunday Bee Character Sketch of a Woman Who is Officially
Listed in Her Home Town as "Doing Nothing" and Yet Has More Activity
Than the Average Man Would Care to Assume as His Share of World's
Work OMAHA is to have as its guest this week one of
the most distinguished of American women - Mrs. Sarah S. Platt
Decker of Denver. After this simple address might be written a long
list of titles and offices she has and still holds bearing testimony
to the justice of her claim to the distinction that is hers, but
just now the women of the land like best to speak of her as "Mrs.
Decker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs." To tell who Mrs. Decker is would be almost
superfluous, while what she is could scarcely be better expressed
than it was by one of the papers of her home city: "A woman who
stands for all that is progressive, all that is good and all that is
womanly." A compliment indeed. This will not be Mrs. Decker’s first visit to
Omaha. She has been here several times before in the capacity of
club woman, but this time she comes also as one of the chief
speakers before the Conference of Charities and Corrections this
afternoon and Monday, as well as the guest of the club women of
Omaha and of the Second district of the Nebraska Federation, which
convenes here this week in conjunction with the conference. Wherever the woman' club is known, wherever
charities and corrections, child and woman labor reform, civil
service reform or juvenile court work are known in this country Mrs.
Decker's name is a household word. For years these several interests
and others have had her sympathy and support and it has been a
support that has given them impetus. Despite her varied interests
and activities, however, Mrs. Decker can in no sense be classed with
those persons who "belong" to things just because they are popular
or profitable. Membership to her means responsibility and it is an
axiom in her city and state that when Mrs. Decker takes hold there
is something doing. Fine Example of Woman Mrs. Decker is a conspicuous example of the
possibilities of the woman of wealth and social position who chooses
to take a serious part in the serious work of the world. There are
few men or women upon whom are made heavier demands of a public or
private nature, but she is peculiarly as well as fortunately fitted
to meet these demands. A woman of more than ordinary wealth, she has
in addition the culture and the education that combined with a
brilliant mind and exceptional executive ability enable her to take
a prominent part in whatever may enlist her Interest. And to all of
this nature has added a robust constitution, without which she could
have compassed but a fraction of the heavy work she has carried for
years. And then there is a personality that never fails to attract
all who come within its range. Strength, big heartedness, wide
sympathy and a never failing humor make up a combination that is
irresistable [sic] and that is an important factor in her capacity
for leadership. A native of Vermont, she was reared in one of those sturdy New England homes where character was placed above accomplishments, but where education and culture were appreciated for their full value. She is not a college bred woman, but she has made the most of her exceptional talents and the result is an education broad and practical. Combined with her eastern rearing, she has that progressive, energetic alertness that is characteristic of the westerner and that has resulted from her years of residence in Denver. And in this matter of nativity and residence Mrs. Decker has enjoyed another advantage. There is a tradition that, independent of its Justice, is widely prevalent, that the easterner is reluctant at least to concede that his equal in culture and education can come from the west. This feeling has been more noticeable among women perhaps than among men, and because of her sympathy and understanding of. both sections Mrs. Decker has been free from this handicap and the friction incidental to it. An eastern woman by birth and a western woman by adoption, she has done more than almost any other one person in bringing about a better understanding and closer sympathy between the women of the east and the women of the west in the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. So loyally and so truly does she stand for both that her closest friends claim her heart is as much in one place as the other.
Orator and Parliamentarian In spite of the numerous and
varied revelations that have developed with the new woman the public
is still disposed to evince surprise that there may be orators among
them. Some one had defined an orator as one who has something to say
and knows how to say it. This is true of Mrs. Decker. And more, she
is recognized among the most gifted speakers before the public
today. Forceful and convincing in personality, she has ready wit, a
fund of good stories and a sense of humor that serve to strengthen
her logic and to soften the plain truths she tells. She has a fluent
and rare command of language and a magnetism that sways her audience
and holds it, too, even beyond the range of her strong voice.
Repeatedly Mrs. Decker has held congregations of thousands while she
has presented the cause of some reform and the smiles and tears have
succeeded each other alternately upon the face of her auditors.
Wherever she speaks, whether it be an educational, industrial or
some session in the interest of reform, she is a "drawing card." As
a presiding officer she has few equals. A skilled parliamentarian,
she also has that other essential, especially in gatherings of
women, of inspiring the timid ones as well as holding the attention
of all. This ability she repeatedly demonstrated before the immense
audiences that attended all the sessions of the biennial convention
of the General Federation of Women's Clubs held at St. Paul in June,
1906. They were audiences of thinking men and women; picked
representatives of every state in the union, with generous
delegation from Canada and abroad also. What the physical strain of
those seven days must have been no one in the house or even in the
"press boxes" at the foot of the rostrum could guess. There was no
indication of weariness or impatience, as she presided through the
full and frequently perplexing morning and evening sessions of every
day. And Mrs. Decker has never committed herself unless it was in a
brief report she made after the meeting in which she said: "And what
wonderful audiences! When the message reached the desk that first
night that there were 6,000 people in the hall and that 2,000 more
had been turned away - and one policeman mashed flat – the
disposition of the presiding officer was to send for a return ticket
and leave on the midnight train. The very thought of facing such a
multitude for seven days was appalling even to the stoutest heart."
But if Mrs. Decker was appalled no one guessed it, and the local
papers marveled at such a convention of women. SARAH S. PLATT-DECKER. Mrs. Decker's Occupation But it has not always been clear sailing for
Mrs. Decker. However, she refuses to be disturbed because women and
their work are not taken more seriously by men. She is an optimist
by nature and besides that experience has only served to strengthen
her confidence in an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of things. She
is a rare story teller and nothing can better portray the situation
as she has found it than the following which she tells of herself.
Her name had been attached to petition to the city council of
Denver, but she had failed to Indicate her occupation. Upon this
point a man was sent to her home to inquire. Her Experience in Declining And so Mrs. Decker was classed in the city and
state that better than any other have had opportunity to know of her
work and her worth. For years she had been one of the workers in the
Woman's Christian Temperance union and the Woman's club of Denver.
She served as president of the latter organization and later as
president of the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs. She first
came prominently before the General Federation of Women's Clubs when
it held its fourth biennial convention in Denver nine years ago. It
was she who superintended the entertainment of the convention, which
was the first of the really big biennials, and which still stands
unsurpassed. At that time the convention would have honored Mrs.
Decker with the presidency of the General Federation, but she
declined the honor, and incidentally established the precedent that
practically eliminates the hostess city from the presidental contest
if there chances to be one. But as Mrs. Decker's popularity
permitted her to establish precedents it also enabled her to break
them if she chose, but she did not choose to do so, and two years
later at the Milwaukee biennial, when her friends would have
violated the unwritten law that concedes a second term to each
president, she for a second time declined the honor, and Mrs. Rebeca
Douglas Lowe of Atlanta, Ga., was elected president. When the
convention met at Los Angeles two years later Mrs. Decker's friends
were determined she should accept the presidency of the General
Federation, but again she declined, Insisting that Mrs. Demies T. S.
Dennison of New York, the vice president, who had carried the
burdens of the chief executive office during Mrs. Lowe's absence in
Europe the greater part of the term, should next have the honor as
well as the work of the first office. Following this decision there
came a demonstration such as seldom has been witnessed in a body of
the character of the biennial. Ignoring her refusal, she was
nominated again and again from the floor. Seeing the determination
of the house, Mrs. Decker rose from her seat in the balcony and
declared she would not accept the office if she was elected, but it
was not until she came to the rostrum and again refused absolutely
to serve that the convention subsided. Two years later at St. Louis,
when Mrs. Dennison had refused to serve another term, Mrs. Decker
allowed her name to be proposed as a candidate, and her election was
unanimous. At the St. Paul biennial in June, 1906, Mrs. Decker was
unanimously re-elected for a second term and since that time has
visited nearly every state federation in the country for the annual
state convention, strengthening club work and gaining inspiration. And besides being president of the General
Federation of Women's Clubs, Mrs. Decker is a member of the National
Child Labor committee, the National Juvenile Improvement
association, the National Civics association and of the State Board
of Charities and Corrections of Colorado, in all of which
organizations she actually works. Woman Suffragist Also Yes, and Mrs. Decker is a woman suffragist,
too. She believes in it firmly and has had an active part in the
municipal and state politics of Denver and Colorado since the
enfranchisement of the women of that state. Upon the death of her
husband, Judge Platt of Denver, she assumed the management of his
estate for their daughter, her only child, and herself. Eight years
ago she married Judge William S. Decker of Denver, and a few years
later was again left a widow. In the management of her own business
interests Mrs. Decker says she has come to appreciate more fully the
advantages the women of her state enjoy over women of the. states
where they are less privileged politically. Never have the women of the General Federation
of Women's Clubs paid Mrs. Decker a greater compliment than when
they elected her to present the long tabooed subject of woman
suffrage before the St. Louis biennial. So tactfully and so clearly
did she present it that before she had concluded the majority of
even the conservative women in the audience had made the surprising
discovery that they had always believed in her doctrine. There was
nothing unwomanly nor dangerous in the privilege as she presented
it. But with equal tact she has helped prevent this question coming
before the biennials as an issue, knowing that the General
Federation was not yet ready for it. But she does advocate women interesting
themselves in civil service reform. She has urged it upon club women
as a positive duty to inform themselves regarding the condition and
management of the various public institutions maintained for the
care of unfortunates. "This work," she says, "is not politics, it is
religion." It is upon this subject, civil service reform, that Mrs.
Decker will speak in Omaha. It is not only the privilege but the
duty of the mothers of the land to inform themselves upon the vital
subjects of the day, she claims. While heartily in sympathy with all
that pertains to culture and education, she is intensely practical,
and one of her favorite stories is of a town that supported three or
four Shakespeare and Browning societies, but that was appallingly
run down at the heels from a civic standpoint. Her Outline of Woman's Work Summed up, this busy woman cannot be more
justly estimated than as the recognized competent leader of the
great organization of women, the General Federation of Women's
Clubs, the purpose of which she has outlined as follows: |
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| November 13, 2012 | |
