Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-23
PHOEBE COUZlNS' CASE
SHE FILES A VOUCHER FOR 4
MONTHS SALARY.
1t Is Not the Emoluments of the Office
She Is Fighting For, But the Over
throw of Mrs. Potter Palmer.

WASHINGTON, June 22.-Miss Phoebe
Couzins filed voucher for her salary
for May as secretary of the board of lady
managers of the worlds fair with AS
sistant Secretary Nettleton at the treas
ury department today, together with a
brief in support OF her claim. The brief
is in two parts, the first having been
prepared by w. P. Black and G. B.
Waite, and the other by Robert Rae.
The case is reviewed in all its branches,
and an elaborate argument presented
to show that Miss Couzins is still
legally the secretary OF the
board of lady managers. 1t is
contended that while the commission
had power to prescribe the duties of the
board, it could not control, direct or su-
pervlse the board in the exercise of its
powers, nor in the agencies by which or
methods in which that board should
perform the duties prescribed by the
commission.
The following comment is made on the
so-called subcommittee "Surely the
subcommittee chosen from the personal
appointees of one lady, however gifted
and however dazzling her social posi-
ton, is not the body which con-
gress contemplated when it adopted
section of the act providing for a
worlds commission to exercise the
functions of the board of lady managers
provided for in that section. The at
tempt to substitute the little coterie of
personal appointees for the magnificent
body of representative women which was
originally selected by the commission
in performance of the duty in that behalf
imposed upon it, when coapled with its
publicly declared policy that no further
meeting of the board of lady managers
is ever to be called, and that all the
duties of the board are to be performed
in perpetuity by the executive commit
tee of that board, or a subcommittee
thereof, furnishes sufficient occasion for
the struggle which is being made by
Miss Couzins to maintain the dignity
and defend the rights of the board OF lady
managers, and gives sufficient concern to
those who have believed this legislation
of congress would afford a fitting oppor-
tunity for representative women OF
America to show what is in their power
when called upon to participate in the
transactions of a great national enter
prise like this exposition, and who now
behold this opportunity about to be de-
stroyed by the efforts 10 transfer all the
powers of this board of lady managers to
single woman, acting in conjunction
with an executive committee, so called,
or a subcommittee of such executive
committee, illegally appointed by her
self, and thus acting in subsection TO the
executive committee, the commission
and its director-general, thus becoming
merely subordinates of certain officers
of the commission"
In closing their briefs, Black and
Waite say: I'm her fight In this case,
Miss Couzins is not merely struggling to
retain the office on account of its emolu-
ments, for the personal advantage
which she might derive from the exer-
else of it's prerogatives. She made an
appeal to the courts believing that the
proceedings which have been carried on
against her are arbitrary, illegal and
revolutionary, and she insists that until
the courts have spoken authoritatively
upon the questions presented, she is
J entitled to exercise the functions, per
form the duties and draw the salary
attaching to the position to which she
was elected by the board of lady man
! ayers November 20. $780,"
| Assistant Secretary Nettleton says the
department will take no action in the
matter until the status of Miss Couzins
has been determined by the courts.