Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-05-23
THE JUST GOVERNMENT
LEAGUE never DAUNTED
Talk by Rev. ]. L. Smiley--Paper
by Prof. W. o. Stevens Entitled
"A Suffrage Oasis"
A HANDFUL OF WOMEN
With Their Faces Set Towards En-
lightenment and PrOgress---Mak-
ing a Fight Against Over
wheiming Odds.

1 80 A6ht R6oAuSt ONCt-
wheiming Odds.
The Just Government League of
Anne Arundel county meets always ON
Mondays at Suffrage Headquarters and
is never daunted by rain, sunshine,
disappointment or small attendance.
This body tlways finds or makes in
teresting talk ami those who do not
attend miss something. Notwithstand-
ing there was some mistake.as to the
chief speaker OF the afternoon. the
meeting Monday was one of interest,
many questions were discussed and
Rev. j. l.. Smiley gave very gooi talk
| Mrs. Moss read the paper of Prof Stev-
ems. the main points of which will be
| found below.The League feels greatly
| indebted to the writer for such en-
| dorsement of its work in this An
cient City Prof Stevens won the
prize offered by the n. Y. Independent
for The best thing in your town" and
| was published in April last 1t makes
| such good reading. Ii is entitled "a
| suffrage Oasis" Ii reads in part as
| follows:
The word best is not only superla-
| tive but comparative. The best thing
in thousand square miles of sand for
instance is still oasis, and to appre-
ciate it one must first see the desert
Our town as a biennial Legislature
| makes us realize, all too keenly. is the
capital Of our State, it has but ten or
eleven thousand inhabitants. white
black and intermediary tints. In the
eighteenth century 1t was one OF TIA
most important cities in our country.
Here Washington resigned his commits
sion in the presence of the Continental
Congress- Here met the assembly of
notables which issued the call for the
Constitutional Convention. Here oc-
CURED many historic events, which
every member of the Peggy Stewart
Chapter, ID. A. II. has at tongues end.
Our town contains many beautiful CO.
lonial mansions, rather down at the
heels perhaps, but still bearing graft
tying evidence TO the fact that there
was a period of American life when
wealth and taste united. Our town
now is like a dear Obj lady nodding
over her knitting by the chimney cor
ner and dreaming of the days when she
was the toast of the town To put it
sentimentally the Ancient City, as it
loves to be called, has been so long
satisfied with its historic fame, that it
is content to fuddle along without
particle of enterprise, glorying in the
superstitions of sixty years ago. Po-
litically il lies flat beneath the wheels
of a Democratic machine. whose boss
can always scare off any independent
spirit by waving the time worn negdo
boogy. The aridity of business and
politics. however. is not the driest fea-
ture of this desert. For the genuine
Sahara one must turn to the intellect
ual life of our town. Long ago it
sank to the position of an outlying
| fringe or limbo, for the great Naval
Academy in its bonlers Accordingly.
such thought as escaped the limits set
by our First Families has run through
the narrow channels OF navy yard life
The intellectual activities of the naval
officer are concerned with the prob
lens of his profession. Bound as he is
to serve any administration he is likely
TO take small interest in political or
economic issues. His wife, rejoicing IN
his shore leave, trys TO make up for the
lean and lonely years of sea duty by
| getting as much fun as possible out OF
| social activities. Navy yard life, there
fore. becomes a round of calls, teas.
hops, card parties and conversation.
Seldom rises beyond the level of shop
and personalities. Since the naval in
| fiuence is predominant, the nice peo-
pie of Our Town are content to color
| their lives and thoughts after the navy
yard style. This combination of naval
influence with hoary traditions forms
q kind of stupor that Theoretically seals
the mental life of Our Town. Music,
| drama. art. literature, science, social
| progress-all together do not weigh
| against an Invitation to the officers
| hopi So much for the desert. The
Oasis is a small group of women or
gsnized in the interest of woman suf-
| frage No one in naval society has yet
| taken up woman suffrage. and the
| very idea that a lovely woman soiling
her purity at the polls is anolluma to
the chivalry of the first families!
| Hence that little organization means a
defiance of the laws of the social
| Medes and Persians. Its president is
one of our best citizens. and the wo-
man editor of our local paper gives
loyal support, but as it is extremely
questionable to be a Suffragist in Our
Town. the organization has no fiowery
road to travel II insists on digging
ur embarrassing facts about the gov
crnment of Our Town and county
while the voters are content TO be
nni'ed about by the nose and To let we'll
enough alone These suffragists raise
7cestions about school funds. santa
tioa. the almshouse. child labor IN can
factories. etc. and they are the
only people in town doing anything oi