My earliest memory was of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the day of his funeral, when all the shutters of the neighborhood were closed and… - Ella Reeve Bloor

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.

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 in the question, especially after reading about Lucy Stone, one of the earliest fighters against Negro slavery, and a leader for many years in the struggle for woman's suffrage.

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.