[2] While Ida Wharton Dawson served as its president, its membership of 1,500 made it one of the largest in the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
The purpose of this meeting was to form a large organization, one which should through united action in common interests work steadily toward a better knowledge of civic conditions and for the development of sympathetic good fellowship among women.
An Industrial School for Girls, the education of defectives, a Better Babies campaign, and the founding of a State College for Women were actively advocated in 1914.
[2] In the years 1916–17, the Contemporary succeeded in having women placed on governing boards of institutions for the insane, waged campaigns for the prevention of cigarette selling to minors, and devoted their energies to war relief.
[2] A citation was received from Washington, D.C. for gathering weekly statistics on the price of commodities in different parts of the city at the request of the United States Department of Agriculture for the Study of Port Newark authorities.