The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-09-21
POLITICIANS WOMEN OF THE coLuM.
BlAN BOARD.


Mrs. General John A. Logan mem
Der of the Woman's National Board,
of the Columbian Exposition, refer
ring to the petty jealousies and un-
seemingly wrangling among the
women of the board says:
Il feel that the greatest opportuni-
ties women have ever had to advance
themselves or their interests have been
but half improved, because Of envy,
jealousy and personal ambition. If we
have not set back woman's progress
100 years by these mistakes 1t will be
because other causes, outside of our
selves, have carried 1t forward In spite
of the unseemly contention and
petty jealousies displayed"
Mrs. Logan is right in her diagonsis
of the case, as we'll as in her conclu-
sions, viz: that If woman's progress de-
pended upon the women of the Colum-
bian Board, the cause of progress
would be set back 100 years. Happily
woman's progress has not been retard-
ed by the vain, silly, scrambling women,
who have made farce of woman g work
at the fair. What has been proven and
what must stand as lasting reproach
upon the judgement and intelligence
of men, is the fact that the appointive
powers Of the federal and State gov.
ernments did not, as rule, use average
common sense in selecting the women
who should represent progressive
womanhood at the Worlds Fair. Oar
State Governors, as rule selected the
wives of politicians as members Of
State boards, they, by virtue of Office,
becoming members Of the National
Board. These women were rarely from
the ranks of progressive women, or
from the ranks of women prominent in
State or local enterprises, charitable or
otherwise.
Their appointments, as q
rule, were made to pay off political
debts or compliment personal friends.
The result was to load up the board
with women who were without knowl-
edge of deliberative bodies, women who
had gained no distinction as leaders OF
thought or moulders of public opinion;
women who, with realizing sense OF
their own inferiority, were quick to re-
sent the wholesome advice of the few
who had gained knowledge by expert
ence, and whose counsels would have
been sought, had their associates been
from the ranks of progressive women.
So far aslwe have looked into the
subject, we have not found one single
state, with the exception, perhaps, of
Massachusetts,, where the women plac-
ed on the Worlds Fair Commissions,
have been in any sense representative
women of the states from which they
hail. No one who knew these women
had any reason to believe they would
do any better than they have done.
They were as babes playing with fire,
and they have been badly burnt.
Ohio has been no exception to the
rule. The women appointed by Gov
ernor Campbell had no conception of
the work in hand, and had not the ex-
perienced women of Cincinnati and
Cleveland come to the rescue Of their
state, and by independent movements
contributed of their taste and skill to
the woman's exhibits and their own
state buildings, Ohio women would be
without any sort of fit representation
at the Worlds Fair today.
1t is about time that our progressive
American newspapers, nearly all of
which employ representative wo-
men on their respective corps,
who can one and all attest
the truth of what is here written,
would trace the effect back to the
cause, and boldly affirm what is true,
that the progressive women of the Re-
public, with rare exceptions, have had
no chance on the Columbian Board.
Women have barnacles enough tack
ed on to their ship of progress, without
having to carry through the roaring
seas of popular pref udice, the barnacles
of the wrangling women on the Ma
tlonal Columbian Board.
They are politicians women, and no
test of progressive American woman