The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-05-31
NOTALL HARMONY
Something Added to Program
at Federation Meeting.
Women Fall Out Over Manner
Of Conducting Business.
MRS. BARKER TALKS
Her Version Of Resignation as
Secretary.
Charges Mrs. Johnston and Mrs.
GarVey With Unfairness.
Other Side Has Story Too, and
Votes DecisiVely.
BARKER TALKS

AS not uneommOnly happens all was
not sunshine and blue sky at the an
nual meeting of the Kansas Social
Science Federation in Salina this week.
For some time there have been war and
rumors of war among the members OF
the executive board Of the state fedora
tiOns of which the outside world oc-
casionally heard an echo, as when the
official route to the biennial Of the gen
eral federation at Los Angeles, or some
other matter of Importance was dis
cussed. and it reached q elimination
at the annual meeting of the state fed
GRAFTON in Salina this week. At this
convention the uplifting of humanity
the betternent Of the race and the
carrying of sunshine into loWly places,
were not the only considerations. Incl /
dental to the order of the business was.
from all accounts an exhibition of wire
pulling that would have done credit to /
a political caucus. If any one in agines /
that the club women of Kansas are not |
and subtle than How to Manage a Eus- |
band and Choose His Neckties he should /
have been at Salina this week
The trouble was all connected with !
the Office of state recording secretary /
to which Mrs. George Barker Of Law
renee, wife of Speaker Barker of the |
house of representa- ives, was elected at
the annual meeting at LeaVenWOrth last 1
year Mrs. Barker, who claims that she
has been unjustly treated by the other
members of the executive board and
unfairly reported in the club columns
of some newspapers. was In Topeka
Friday and made a statement to a
State Journal reporter.
The real beginning of her difficulties
with the president of the federation.
Mrs. ". A Johnston. and the CORE
I spending secretary, Mrs. H. o. Garvey,
/ both of Topeka, grew out, Mrs. Barker
says, Of a motion made at the first
meeting after election of the executive
/ board which was held in Ottawa last
summer. The edition of copies of the
| constitution and bylaws of the fedora
/ ton had been exhausted and it was
/ proposed that q new edition be printed.
/ A motion was made and carried that
! the secretary do this printing. Mrs.
/ Barker's understanding of the motion.
which her minutes of the meeting Verl-
fy, that the recording secretary
was to attend to the matter. Later. she
asserts, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. Gar
vey got together and got out a pamph-
let of Information for the club women
OF the state and proposed to her that
/ they include the constitution and by
laws in it. Mrs Barker objected to
| this, as the pamphlet of information
peFtained only to the years work and
| the constitution and bylaws were to be
permanent. There was a discussion and
! a quarrel, the president in tears, the
| recording secretary adamant, and the
/ result was that the latter informed the
| former that she proposed filling the
| Office to which she had been elected per-
Sonally rather than by proxy and re-
| fused to be a mere figure head.
The next meeting OF the executive
| board was in Salina last February.
| Prior to that the controversy over the
| official route to Los Angeles, between
| Mrs. Barker and Mrs. c. G. Goddard of
| LeavenWorth, general secretary Of the
| federation, which was thoroughly aired
in the newspapers at the time and
which demonstrated that the male poll
ticians are not the only ones who have
4 the railroad pass habit. came up. This
poured ice water on the already chilly
and the president and corresponding
secretary who favored Mrs. Goddard's
choice of the Union Pacific as the official
route to Los Angeles. What occurred
at the Salina meeting of the executive
board in February, according to Mrs.
Barker's statement, follows.
In her minutes Of the Ottawa meeting
Mrs. Barker had recorded that a mo-
ton that the secretary print the con-
stitutiou and bylaws had been made by
Mrs. Garvey and seconded by Mrs. W.
r. Cow1ey of Columbus. Mrs. Carney
wished to correct the minutes on that
point. She had no recollection, she said.
of having made that motion. Mrs. Bar
zer insisted that she had made a rec
ord of It at the time. Mrs. Johnston
sided with Mrs. Carney and did not re-
member the motion having been made
as the minutes stated She had intend
ed, she said, to ask the board to permit
her to attend to the printing and she
believed that had been the action Of the
printing" asked Mrs Barker, why did
you write and ask me to come to To-
Delza to see about it. and why did you
consult me at all in the natter" She
reminded them that her record was
written and therefore should stand
against their recollection But you
surely don't mean. Mrs. Barker" in
sisted Mrs. Carney, that you mazda
that record at the time of the meeting?"
20, no." Clipped in Mrs. Cow1ey, Mrs
Barker doesn't mean that"
Mrs. Barker says she protested that
she did mean that very thing and
the corresponding secretary clinched the
matter by asserting that Mrs. Barker
must have made the record several
days later.
At that Mrs Barker rose Indignant
~, and, she says, declared that she had
been insulted. Her records had been
questioned and her word had been ques~
toned. Il viii not endure your insults
and humiliations longer" she decided
Il will resign" So she took her doll
rags, or rather her minutes and records
and went to her room in the hotel.
The executive board thereupon forth
with formally accepted Mrs. Barker's
resignation. Meanwhile Mrs. Barker de-
/