Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-18

With tho arrival last night OF q, Epecfal
train. bringing from the west more than
500 national officers, members, alternates
and visiting women for the twenty-fourth
Continental Congress of the Daughters Of
the American Revolution. to convene to-
morrow morning at Memorial Continental
Hall, downtown Washington buzzed with
rumors Of what this session regarded as
the most important ever held by the body,
Is to bring forth. The special train,
which came through without scheduled
stops from Chicago, was met by a big
reception committee at Union station. It
bore the entire delegation from Kansas
Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, and COM
prised numerically the largest body Of
Daughters to arrive at one time.
Not since the suffrage parade March
3. two years ago, was womanhood SO
much in evidence in official and social
Washington as last night Those who
recalled the parade. and some Of its at
tendant circumstances, were prone to see
in its aftermath a comparison with a
situation existing in Union station last
night when the arriving delegates were
welcomed.
or this congress of the D. A. R.,
like all previous ones in the past few
years is not to be without it's fac
tional side. as well as it's official and
deliberative side. The election of Off
| GERS for the next two years, scheduled
| for Wednesday, when balloting is to
start at 9 am, is the absorbing issue
on which will swing, willingly or not,
| all the activities of the 1000 women
who in all probability will attend the
| sessions.
Electioneering Begins.
| And so. with the arrival of the spe-
cial from the west, eIectioneering for
the two rivals for the Office of presi-
dent general-Mrs William Cumming
Story, the incumbent, and Mrs. George
Thacher Guernsey OF kansas-began
with a vim.
Long before the special arrived a
situation of armed neutrality at Union
| station was evident to the most casual
| observer. One line of redoubts held by
| adherents of Mrs Story was f1anked
| by an official booth where the dele
' gates were to make themselves known
| and receive their credentials, pro-
grams Of the congress and directions
| for seeing the city. The other side
| representing the allied states delega
tions which are making vigorous
| campaign for Mrs. Guernsey, was not
SO we'll fortified. but exhibited much
| more mobility. 1t was over the latter
that an incident occurred which Is seen
| as a forecast or what Will follow in
| the congress itself.
| The Guernsey reception committee
| which was made up in large measure
| of Washington women. was numerou.
and active in preparation for the arri
| val of the western delegates when q
squad OF station police appeared and
| warned them to leave the station The
| women charged that the pro- Story
| committee was left immune from the
attentions of the station squad.
Ordered From Station.
Quit electioneering and leave the
| station or you will be arrested" Is tht
| Guernsey factions version of the ulti.
matum which they received. Later
when attorneys were consulted by these
! women as to their rights in the mat.
ter, the d. A. r. insurgents were ad
vised that they had the same right il
| the station as the Story faction.
I .If you arrest me you'll elect Mrs
Guernsey" said one delegate as
badges and literature in her hands, sh.
! expostulated with an obdurate police
officer. The disturbance had attract
ed the attention of the usual week enc
crowds leaving on afternoon trains, ano
they seemed to find a source of amuse
ment in this, as did the Story delega
ton, which, massed in solid phalanx
was viewing the scene.
Charging openly that the Story fac
tion was behind the attempt to GUS
them, the Guernsey workers defied tn.
officers and remained at their posts
Later In the same way that the polio,
activities had begur they ended, ant
the Guernsey delegation calmly sur
1 1Continued on Secoud PaEe,l