Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-16
FAIR FOR THE FAIR.
The Part Women Should Take in the
Columbus Celebration.
VIEWS OF PROMINENT LADIES.
Criticism Of Queen Isabella in Connection
With New League
THE EXPERIENCE At NEW ORLEANS
rcoRRxsroxDENCz OF THE DrsPArcHl

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATcH1
WASHINGTON, February 15.-Within
the past two weeks a remarkable interest
has sprung up all over the country as to the
part which women shall have In the
Worlds Fair. The wives of the Senators,
Supreme Court Judges and Of. the Repre-
sentatives in Congress have already taken
active steps in the matter, and a petition
signed by 10 prominent Washington la
dies has just been presented to Congress
asking that there shall be one or more
women representatives on the Fairs Board
of Managers. A society Of women has been
organized to push the interests of women as
regards the fair and the probability is that
the great exposition will give better dis
play of women's work and women's possi-
bilities than any exposition of the past.
The society is called the Isabella Memoir
ial League, after Queen Isabella of Spain,
whose purse made it possible for Columbus
to discover America. / asked Mrs. Harri-
son as to her interest in the Worlds Fair.
She replied: "In my position of course
can do nothing, but those who have lighter
cares should do everything in their power
to make it a success, and / can think of
many q woman who would make an excel
lent executive officer if Congress should sp-
point woman on the Executive Board.
IT IS woMAN's RIGHT.
f'There are many things q woman cannot
begin to do as well as man, but the work
that will be required for the fair seems
especially fttingto her nature, abilities and
education. Take home, for instance. A
woman always arranges and manages it.
This fair is in q sense similar. It will re-
quire taste, economy, vast deal OF hard
work, and what man is as tasteful, econom-
ical and palnstaking as a woman? It is
woman's right, not women's rights"
''Will it not benefit women greatly?"
eyes, but it is not to help women that
think they should be represented, but to
make the celebration success, and whoever
can best bring that about should be called
upon to act.
SIT was pitiful sight to me-" said Mrs.
Secretary Window, ''to see the crazy quilts
and corpulent pincushions at the Centennial
celebration, and to be told that they repre-
sented women's work. would rather that
the Worlds Fair would pass without any
representation than such an one. If any
woman has done anything that adequately
represents an industry or an art, believe
her work should be shown not because she is
q woman, but because her work represents
an advance. Consequently do not think
there should be an especial woman's depart
ment. As general thing, think man.
agement composed entirely of men or entire
lp of women works better than q mixed one
I am not in favor of women asking anything
on the ground Of their sex, for I think in
this age everyone can do just what they
have the ability to do"
THE ATTORNEY GENERALS WIFE.
ST have not given the subject any special
thought" said Mrs. Attorney General
Miller; "but judging by other things, I
think one woman on an executive board
would be q nuisance. She might be Just as
capable as q man, but her life makes her
have different views on many subjects, and
then if any quarrel or trouble should arise
the world would at once say that it was the
woman's fault It will be the safest, if not
the most glorious. course to allow men to
manage any executive board that may be
organized. There is so much else that
women can do much better than men that it
will be we'll for them to stick to their own
line of work. believe the arrangements
for the New Orleans Exhibition were salts
factory, and there women had a distinct
board. This thing of meddling in mems
work do not approve Of"
cat the centennial celebration of the First
Congress, at which Chief Justice Fuller de-
lIvered the Grafton, there was not even a
flag displayed in the House of Representa-
tives, where the great assembly was. Do
you suppose If one woman had had any
thing to do with it that she would not have
ferreted out the Stars and Stripes that hung
in the First Congress and draped that flag
above the Speakers head?" Susan B. An
thony uttered the words that 1 have Just
quoted, and the grand old girl had fiery
light In her gray eyes that should warn op-
posers of women on Worlds Fair commit
tees to stand from under.
MRS. SENATOR HAwLEY
is a member of the Isabella Memorial
League, and she thinks that Congressman
will save themselves future annoyance bv
listening to the plea of the women now.
Said she: "The simplest way to recognize
the share women will perform in the
Worlds Fair is for Congress to allow the
appointment of women as members of the
Executive Board. 1t is not a case of the
equal rights of women at all, and I do not
care whether there is one woman or two, or
as many as there are men on the board. But
one there should be. think the plan
adopted in New York for its school board
an admirable one to follow in this case, and
it will disarm all criticism or meddling if it
is done. ,..-.
st do not think an executive board-if
such body there be-should appoint COM
mittee OF lady managers but whatever wo-
men have anything to do with it should be
appointed by Congress. I am only afraid
everything has begun too late and that there
will be no isir, for after it has been decided
upon, commissioners from each country have
to be appointed, and when that is done there
will hardly be year for arranging the ex-
h1bits, and that alone should occupy three
years. Perhaps if women had had something
to do with it already there wouldn't have
been so much wrangling about a location,
but the fair itself would have been long
since decided upon"
CRITICIsING QUEEN ISABELLA.
Mrs. Hawley treated the criticism of the
name of the women's organization lightly.
"We cannot" said she, measure women of
the past by our own yardstick. Isabella
may have started the Inquisition, may have
turned against Columbus. but the fact re-
mains that she sold her crown jewels to
start him on his voyage. Columbus dis
covered this country-that is all we ask
about him, and we never thing of following
up his life to see if he did other things we
consider wrong, It is the act. not the
woman, we glorify."
The Southern women have as pronounced
views on the Worlds Fair as the women of
New England. Mrs. Senator Vance gives
North Carolina view. She said: 81 am
in favor Of women having much to do with
the Worlds Fair, and If petition to Con-
gress asking for representation on the Board
of Management was thought the best
method, hope it will succeed. 1 signed
IL hecanse IL seemed tn me an axnallanf uau