The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-02-25
Women 5 Club Members Find
Out Parliamentary
Rules Are Just
Horrld.
MRS. scUDDER WILL NOT Run
And Now Nobody Can Vote for
Anybody for President
SO There.

The Jersey City Woman's Club is in a
twitter. Next Thursday comes the annual
meeting and election of officers meeting
always attended with interest and always
LETT with splitting headaches and the pros
pect now is that the meeting will be live
lier than ever and the headaches greater.
Until this morning all was plain sailing.
The Nominating Committee, of which
Mrs. Joseph A. Dear is chairman, had
received the nominating ballots of the
club members and from these had pre-
pared two tickets for the Offices which
were printed in the "Club Outlook" The
office of President had opposite it but
one name, that of Mrs. John L. Scudder,
the present President of the clup. Inere
had been three or four scattering votes for
other people, but all the other votes of
the 200 odd members had gone for Mrs.
Scudder, and the other candidates refused
to run against such a popular candidate,
so Mrs. Scudder's name stood alone.
The little missive that has caused all
the trouble and excitement is single
page in the handwriting of the Rev. John
L. Scudder:-"Owin to the protracted i'll
ness of Mrs. John L. Scudder and her
proposed departure for Lakewood IN the
near future, she will be unable to accept
the nomination for the. presidency of the
Jersey City Woman's Club This sem
tence was left at 1.-THE News Office this
morning by Mr.. Scudder.
Mrs Scudders daughter, Mrs. Frank
Hillman Hall, called upon Mrs. Dear this
morning and informed her of Mrs. Scud-
der's decision, which was also made
known to the First Vice-President, Mrs.
A. j. Newbury. Then the question was
what to do? Wouldn't Mrs. Scudder re-
consider her determination? Wouldn't t
she consent to remain a figure head as
President of the club, and let the work
be done by the other members until she
recovered her health? Wouldn't she al
low herself to be elected President and
only preside at the meetings until she
was able to do more? The club hadn't
expected Mrs. Scudder to do any work
until her recovery was complete, and the
departments, owing to Mrs. Scudder's
efficient management, were in such ex-
cellent condition that they would move
along without direction. Wouldn't Mrs
Scudder consent to accept her certain
election and let the club work slide until
she could direct it?
But to all these suggestions Mrs. Scud-
der remained firm. She had declined the
confederation and she would stand by her
declination. Her physician had forbid
den her to continue all the hard work she
has previously done, and she has resolved
to obey his orders.
What, then, was to be done? There
was no other candidate in the field. The
constitution of the Woman's Club was
carefully searched, but there was no
provision for such an emergency. There
was no help to be found in that quarter.
The few people who had scattering votes
had so few that no one could be consid-
cred the choice of the club; it was too
late to send out another nominating bal
lot; if left to an informal ballot on
Thursday it might disarrange the whole
questions under consideration. There
seemed to be no way of settling the mat
ter satisfactorily. If the Nominating
Committee assumed authority in the
who would-well not kick, but object.
And so with the Executive Committee.
After a great deal OF discussion, 1t was
finally arranged that the Nominating
Committee should send a postal to each
member, telling of Mrs. Scudder's de-
clination and requesting each, memper to
send her choice for president Mt to mrs: s.
are received there will undoubtedly be
excitement There will be running here
and there to know if it can be true,
date. canvassing. The last Presidential
campaign is as nothing compared to what
this will be- There are of course. three
or four ladies who are already spoken OF
as possible candidate and their chances
of election are being discussed Mrs. A.
r. Newbury, the first candidate for first
vice president, is one of those spoken of
as eligible. Miss Gaines who was presl-
dent three years and gave up the office
because of her election to the presidency
of the State Federation, is another, as
are Mrs John A. Walker, Mrs. Dr. M: F.
DeHart and Mrs. George ". Case. The
election will be awaited with interest.