[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 67 (Thursday, May 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E871]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MARTHA MATILDA HARPER'S BUSINESS ACCOMPLISHMENTS

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                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 25, 2000

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, today I speak in honor of Small Business 
Week. As we salute the entrepreneurial engine of our country, it is my 
distinct privilege to inform you that I represent the district where 
modern franchising was first conceived in Rochester, NY.
  In 1888, Martha Matilda Harper, an impoverished Canadian immigrant 
who came to the United States to change her destiny, developed a new 
business model to share the economic opportunity of business ownership 
with former servant women, her working-class sisters. She demonstrated 
how to use business for social change. Ultimately, Harper had over 500 
healthy hair and skin care salons throughout the world, delighting 
world leaders, including our presidents, first ladies, suffragists, and 
socialites. President Woodrow Wilson went for nightly scalp massages in 
the Harper Paris salon to relax his tired nerves, while he was 
negotiating the Treaty of Versailles.
  As we go forth in the new millennium, I hope we remember to credit 
the early innovators in our country, especially when they were poor 
women such as Martha Matilda Harper who changed the face of our 
business models. It is particularly fitting that May 26th in Rochester, 
NY, is being declared Martha Matilda Harper Day as a new museum exhibit 
and book reveal the extraordinary feats and principles of this 
remarkable woman. May her wisdom and leadership guide us as we compete 
in our global economy.

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