Madam State Regent - National Officers - State Officers - Gracious Hostesses - Daughters of the American Revolution and Friends:
As regent of the General Joseph Winston Chapter, D.A.R., I have the honor and pleasure of presenting to you today for your endorsement for the office of Vice-President General from North Carolina the name of one of my chapter members, and your own former state regent, Mrs. W. O. Spencer of Winston-Salem.
Patriotism for this organization, pride in North Carolina, love of service, blend together in prompting the presentation of Mrs. Spencer as a candidate for the office of Vice-President General, for we believe she should have the endorsement of this conference and of every loyal daughter of the Organization in the State.
Among the many reasons why North Carolina should have a Vice-President General, may I not mention a few outstanding ones:
First - North Carolina is one of the original thirteen colonies, and it behooves us who love her history to continuously join hands in making glorious and unselfish her history in loyalty to our state and national efforts, as exemplified by this great organization.
Second -We are in such close proximity to national headquarters in Washington, that we can easily and happily present our representative on the shortest notice to facilitate national matters, which may arise necessitating a quorum immediately.
Third - We present to you Mrs. Spencer because we firmly believe that we have a candidate whose love and devotion and service, to this organization transcends every other interest of her life, with the exception of those interests a woman holds most dear - those of he home and church.
You must realize that today, we stand as an organization nationally and internationally second to none. The best women of America are to be found in this patriotic body of women - our ideals are the highest, we strive to show to the world that each year we mount higher and higher in our exemplification of honor and justice and love for all mankind.
We believe that Mrs. Spencer stands for these ideals, therefore I may not recall to your mind the memories of a few of the outstanding accomplishments of her regency - her efforts for you, and for her beloved state.
She was your reconstruction regent, perhaps serving you during the hardest years since your organization in the state, and to her, must ever go the honor of having put the state on a firm financial footing - so that today North Carolina stands on the highest platform in the organization, that of being ever square financially, with every financial obligation.
Again during those troublous days just following the great war, when the heartstrings as well as the purse strings were drained, when Mrs. Spencer assumed the duties of state regent she found the state deeply in debt, there was a Liberty Bond deficit totaling $225.00, a deficit in the Tillaloy fund of $150.00 and two hundred and more dollars to be raised to pay for the minutes of the former year's conference, this with the accruing Guernsey scholarship - the fund to be raised for the first edition of the Manual, The Plymouth Memorial and the picture for the French Memorial Museum, were a few of the obligations which she assumed for you. These obligations were all met.
In order that North Carolina should be put on a firm financial basis so that her obligations might not have to be met by actual begging, a sinking fund was created, all of it, worked out in the absence of the treasurer, who was unfortunately ill in a distant hospital, presented at the Tarboro Meeting, and it is this system on which the finance of the state are today operating.
Again, the scholarship fund, the idea of which was a memorial to the descendant of Daughters of the American Revolution to be a scholarship at the State University, available alike to both boys and girls, was conceived by Mrs. Morrison and $42.50 paid into the treasury before she went out of office, the remainder of the hundred dollars was raised during the first few months of Mr. Spencer's regency and with no strings tied to it, presented in September to Miss Frances Womble who was enabled thereby to take her degree at the University - there were no obligations along with this, it was a free gift, but our of this a plan was devised for a permanent scholarship - a per capita tax of fifty cents being fixed in a motion made by Mrs. Dorian Blair at the Salisbury meeting of the Conference, and when Mrs. Spencer went out of office her splendid treasurer turned over to the new regime $2,743.52, plus $48.35 interest, making $2,791.87 as a scholarship fund. Every cent of this amount was collected during Mrs. Spencer's term of officer but Mrs. Spencer wishes credit for the scholarship fund to go to Mrs. Morrison who deserves all credit for the idea.
Mrs. Spencer also took a chair in Continental Hall for the state and finally turned over the affairs of the state without debt and with an established credit.
But indeed dollars and cents do not always spell success and happiness, and I shall close with what is considered possibly the greatest achievement of her regency, namely, the division of the state into districts, with its self-evident benefit to the society both in the state and nationally; the organization by her of ten chapters with all papers signed for the organization of four more, which were held up in Washington and organized immediately after her retirement from office, two of these she was happy to present at the final organization and she has ever felt a vital interest in them all.
The second outstanding achievement of her administration was undoubtedly the collection and publishing of the military records of the descendants of the D.A.R., in North Carolina, who served in the great World's War, two volumes of which were carried to Washington by Mrs. Spencer and filed in the archives of the society and two carried to Raleigh for the Hall of History by he splendid historian, Mrs. Blair to whom Mrs. Spencer ever desires to give credit for the completion.
And last but not least the climax of her administration was reached when at the request of Mrs. Spencer for a North Carolina room in the new administration building - a suite of rooms were assigned her and the entire fifteen hundred dollars was collected by her and her faithful treasurer Mrs. Ragan, in three months, and carried by the regent to the board meeting - the first room to be taken and the first paid for.
Loyal Daughters of North Carolina this room is yours - to use in April and through all the years to come, and it was made possible by the faithful service of one of your state regents.
Remembering these things and others, in the name of my own chapter and hers, I have the honor of presenting to you the name of Mrs. Spencer for the Office of Vice-President General, believing that she will represent you with honor and will uphold for you the great ideals of our North Carolina Patriots, for she is a North Carolina Daughter, Mrs. Spencer's ancestors having lived here in the state since the days of the Jamestown settlers.
Mrs. Spencer does not wish to claim your support for having done her duty to you and yours, but rather because she desires to still serve you, and that she may in the years to come know that North Carolina stands for justice and truth and loyalty to those who have given their best to her.
Nominating Speech in Charlotte, March 1926,
delivered by Mrs. W. L. Reed
of the General Joseph Winston Chapter
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