The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-06-23
Phoebe Cousins Flies a Brief.

| WASHINGTON, June 22.-Miss Phoebe
Cousins filed q voucher for salary fol-
work as secretary of the board of lady
managers of the Worlds fair with Assistant
Secretary Nettleton at the treasury depart
ment to-day, together with brief in sup,
port Of her Claim. The brief IS in two parts,
the first having been prepared by w. p
Black and c. b. Waite and the other by
Robert Rae.
The case is reviewed in all its bearings
and an elaborate argument presented to
show Miss Cousins is still legally secretary
OF the board OF lady managers. 1t is con-
tended that the commission had the power
to prescribe the duties of the
board, but it could not control,
direct or supervise the board in
the exercise OF its powers. nor IN the agen-
cies by which or the methods in which that
board would perform the duties prescribed
by the commission.
II is asserted that the executive commit
tee board as constituted "is an utterly ir-
responsible creation of the president
board" And the following comment is
made on the so-called subcommittee !:
'Surely the subcommittee chosen from
the personal appointees of ons lady, how
ever gifted and however dazzling her social
position, is not the body which Congress
contemplated when il adopted section six
of the act providing for the Worlds COM
mission to exercise the functions of the
board of lady managers provided for in that
section. The attempt to substitute this
little coterie of personal appointees for the
magnificent body of representative women
which was originally selected by the com
mission in the performance of their duty in
that behalf imposed upon it, when coupled
with the publicly declared policy of no
further meeting of the board Of lady man
ayers is ever to be called, and that all The
duties of that board are to be performed in
perpetuity by the executive committe of
that board or a subcommittee thereof, this
effort furnishes sufficient occasion for the
struggle which is being made by
Mrs. Cousins to maintain the dig
nifty and defend the rights of the board
Of Lady managers and gives sufficient con
Germ to those who have believed this iegis-
lation OF Congress would afford a fitting
opportunity for the representative women
Of America to show what is in their power
when called upon to participate in the
transaction Of a great national enterprise
like this exposition. and who now behold
this opportunity about to be destroyed by
an effort to transfer all the powers of this
board Of lady managers to single woman
acting in conjunction with an executive
committee so-called, or sub committee
SUCH 6S luo tScCQtisC COuullLLe6 Illegally
appointed Dy herself and thus acting in
subsection 70 the executive committee of
the commission and its director-general.
thus becoming merely subordinstes to GER
tain officers of the commission"
In closing their brief Black and Waite
say: 'In her fight in this case, Miss
Cousins is not merely struggling to retain
the office on account Of its emoluments and
the personal advantage which she might
derive from the exercise Of its preroga-
tives, in the performance Of its duties she
insisting she holds her commission by vir-
tue of the action of the board of lady
managers and that the board must pass
upon the question of her retention Of the
office aud as to whether she has faithfully
performed all the duties devolved upon her
by her election as secretary of tho board of
lady managers. She made an appeal to the
courts, believing the proceedings which
have been carried on against her are
arbitrary, illegal and revolutionary, and
she insists that until the courts have
spoken sutnoritatively upon the questions
presented, she 1t entitled to exercise the
functions. perform the duties and draw the
salary attaching to the position to which
she was elected by the board of lady mana
gers November 90, 1890"
In his brief Rae makes the following re-
marks 10 regard to the powers of the board
of lady managers: at is the evident iuteu-
ton OF the act of Congress that the board
Of lady managers should continue in tho
active performance Of it, duties up to and