CATT, Carrie CHAPMAN      General Correspondence        O’Connor, Kate F.

STATE OF ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
SPRINGFIELD

Martin P. Durkin, Director
Dr. A. H. R.  Atwood, Ass't Director

Kate F. O'Connor, Supervisor
Minimum Wage Law for Women 
and Minors
Rockford National Bank Building
Telephone Main 7202
Rockford, Illinois

January 9, 1934

Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt
New Rochelle, New York

My dear Mrs. Catt:

On this, your birthday, I come to present my 
greetings.  I wish I could put my arms around 
you and tell you what you have meant to me 
throughout the years.

I will always remember the day when you came 
into the Auditorium in Chicago with that great 
soldier for humanity, Susan B. Anthony.  It 
was a red letter day in my life, as I met you 
both on that day, and had the thrill of grasping 
your hand and looking into your lovely face.   
On that day, you wore a little hat with flowers 
around it, and Catherine Waugh McCullough and I, 
who were old school friends, sat there admiring 
you and applauding every sentence you uttered.  
I remember you also the day you stood on the 
platform in Chicago at the Congress Hotel when 
the National Suffrage Association emerged into 
the League of Women Voters.  You and Mary Garett 
Hay were on the platform, and it was with great 
joy that I received your badge of honor as a 
Pioneer of Illinois for my efforts in behalf of 
woman suffrage.

Again in Washington, D. C. I remember you when 
you presided with such dignity and force at the 
Congress, the "Cause and Cure of War", and again, 
I drank in your words that savored of sincerity,
knowledge, and truth.

You have stood for the things that have been near 
and dear to my own heart, but you have done them 
better and more effective, as you were not handicapped 
by poverty, hard work, and the fact of 
belonging to the Democratic Party.

Mrs.Carrie Chapman Catt     #2

You have another good friend here in Rockford, 
Carrie Ashton Johnson, who has always been outstanding 
in her work for women and children.   In 
fact, Catherine Waugh McCullough, Carrie Ashton 
Johnson and myself were considered the "Great 
Triumvirate" in the battle for woman suffrage in 
those memorable days.

It must be a great happiness to you, dear Mrs. 
Catt, to look back upon your accomplishments in 
behalf of women.   The League of Women Voters today 
is the beneficiary of the great work of your 
many noble predecessors, and I hope you will live 
for many years to enjoy the flowers in your great 
garden of friends throughout the entire country.

Yours Sincerely,
Kate F. O'Connor

Register-Republic - 1-2-34
An Honor Earned.
Recognizing it as an ideal appointment, many 
citizens over the state have hurried to congratulate 
Rockford's grand citizen, Kate F. 
O'Connor, upon her appointment as supervisor 
of the minimum wage law for women and minors. 
Miss O'Connor has received her portfolio.
Illinois is the 15th state to adopt a minimum 
wage law.  Henceforth, as Miss O'Connor 
points out, a greatly needed service can be 
performed for Illinois women, who have been 
forced, in a desperate battle against poverty, to 
accept any wage offered them.  The unscrupulous 
employer has had a terrifically unfair advantage, 
unfair to the person seeking work, and 
unfair to the host of kind and thoughtful employers 
who want the men and women on their 
pay rolls to live in reasonable comfort.  The 
woman wage earner, who knows she is entitled
to a better wage, need no longer fear to 
demand it under Illinois law.
Miss O'Connor is particularly pleased that 
in her new work she will be associated with 
Martin Durkin, director of labor, an outstanding 
member of Governor Horner's cabinet.
The appointment is a happy surprise to 
Miss O'Connor.  She did not know she was 
under consideration for the post.  Actually it is
a fitting reward for a long service in behalf of 
women and children.   This greatly admired
Rockford lady was in the battle for equal suffrage 
in the days when the that meanest of weapons, 
ridicule, was used by its opponents.   Her 
friends know she was always to be found where 
the fighting was hottest, her wit, her cheerfulness, 
and determination lend encouragement to
her comrades.  Now an enviable honor has come 
to her, an honor placed in capable and deserving hands.
Rockford, Illinois

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