Through the Quakers, who believed in equality for women, I first came into touch with the woman suffrage movement. I began to be very much interested… - Ella Reeve Bloor

I am by no means closing my life story. I expect to live that for years to come. As I read over the chapters of this book, I feel that it is after all not adequate in expressing to the reader the real "me." How can I describe the deep emotions I have experienced during all these years, in the crises that come in every mother's life-and especially a mother who goes into the battles of the workers. How can I make others feel and understand the home-sickness of such a mother, even when the children are grown, the conflict in one's soul between the love of home and peace, and the responsibility of going out among the masses with the message that I have felt I must take to them. But the choice I made wasnot a sacrifice. It has been a privilege and joy. My greatest longing and desire is to retain my health and strength so that I may continue to work. I have not mentioned all my dear friends and co-workers. It would take a larger book than this to bring before the readers of my story the wonderful characters who have gone along the road with me, and others I have met in passing; great names, long friendships, loves and comradeships of men and women. Men and women like Barbusse of France, Clara Zetkin of Germany, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Ruthenberg, Debs, Browder, Foster, Ford and thousands of others, thousands of farmers, miners, workers everywhere and their children who have been close to me always along the march-all these have been the comrades of my rich and joyous life. (p 308)

And now, as I near the end of my first eighty-two years, the greatest joy of all is to witness the coming into its own of organized labor as the decisive factor in our national life. All sections of the American people are waking up to the fact that their own future well being and security are dependent not only on the goods produced by labor, but on the well being and security of the workers themselves. In other words, that prosperity, like peace, is indivisible! And the workers, by their willingness to forego the strike weapon and to give themselves unstintingly to the war effort on the battle field and on the home front, have certainly shown that they have no interests apart from the highest interests of the nation as a whole. The workers have grown in maturity and power, and they have demonstrated that they can be counted on to use that power not only to achieve the conditions of work and the standards of living that are their right but to advance the interests of all the people. And they know that the first job is to wipe fascism from the face of the earth.

the richest gift was the inspiration of seeing what the workers of America were doing for the war. Shipyard workers, steel workers, miners, farmers-among all the old friends and thousands of new ones, I found the same fighting spirit everywhere. And the women! Women like giants in the earth as they took on men's jobs, managed their children and households too, and courageously bore the sacrifices war made necessary. Of course, not all was well. Problems of child care were not getting enough attention, reactionary forces were trying to split the growing unity of our people, especially of Negroes and whites, and trying to spread defeatist doctrines. But the people all over the country were marching ahead united as never before. It was a special joy to feel the changing attitude toward Communists. Everywhere I found our Party people in the vanguard of those groups determined to weld an ever stronger unity among all the American people, putting their last ounce of energy into the war effort.