Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1917-02-22
feared to distress him again.

TSs ft9E
feared to distress him again.
Edith Mallon was an unusual
woman. Old Senator Watrus
called her "the most wonderful
among women" Washington is a
city famou;. for it's men rather
than its women. The women, sur
rounded by affairs of state, i'm
mersed in a food of political Cos
sip, breathing always the atmos-
phere of national affairs, seldom
make an effort to study and I'M
derstand the very thing in which
their husband live and move and
have their being. Edith was one
OF the two women in Washington
who read the Congressional Rec
ord every morning. Her mornings
she kept to herself. Senator's and
representatives charged with the
framing Of legislation affecting
the humanities-better working
hours for women, better health
conditions, legislation affecting
food, the betterment Of children's
conditions-found her a valuable
adviser, sought her opinions on de-
tails which many hours of public
hearing had not made clear. She
was far more than a delightful
partner at a dance, a center of
brllliance at a dinner, a woman
whom men sought in marriage.
She was q student. And, like
Cholliewollie, she knew her Wash
ington. Cholliewo]lie, who knew
everybody, had told her ONCE, at
the end of an interview with her
for his paper:
You'd better look out for this
woman suffrage stuff. Some day
it will result in defeating your re
vered father and making a United
States senator out of you!"
In addition to the special and
lmperious attraction John Smith
had for her, she realized to the
full the greatness of the work he
already had done. His conquest
of society, as Waller had pointed
out, had been complete. That had
been due entirely to the charm of
his personality and the delightful
ness of his wit. People had ac-
cepted him at face value. Hewas he
that was enough. And, when the
gossip had started about his mys-
FERROUS past, old Mrs. Grover, who
always suspected any strange man
Of being a chauffeur in disguise,
had said, IF his past is as charm
ing as his present, it has no terrors
for me'-a sentiment that was re-
celyed as an accurate description
of the Whole city's attitude to-
ward him.
But the impression he had made
on men, on of%ficialdom, had been
tar more remarkable. Congress
is like any other large assemblage
of men. 1t is dominated by a small
group-a little band Of leaders in
the House, another in the Senate.
1t must be so. Unless it We're,
nothing ever could be accom-
plished. And the leaders disregard
outside considerations, ex~traIieous
issues, anything other than the
Legislative program laid down in
the conferences between them
selves and the president. That is,
rthey disregard it until the popular
voice-that vague, powerful, ire
sistible thing switch they call
public opiniono-begins to cry
like a wanderer in the wilderness.
Even then they disregard it until
it reaches a key which shows that,
unless it is answered., vengeance
will be visited on the responsible
party at the polls.
She knew this as well as any Of
the lawmakers knew it. She knew,
also, that the prohibition agita-
ton had been for 80 years a cry in
the wilderness, a call that congress
had disregarded. Since she had
met Smith, she had studied that
problem as thoroughly as she had
gone into many others. She knew
the reluctance of any politician to
touch the question. She remem-
bered the motto in Washington:
If you're for liquor, off goes your
head; if you're against it, of it
goes" She knew that the bulk Of
the members had proceeded on the
policy--the convenient policy-of
saying: "This is nothing for the
federal government to interfere
with. Let the states or the various
communities deal with it as they
see fit" Of course it was coward
ice, she argued, when makers of
the law kept their hands off what
they knew was an evil and ex-
cused their apathy by contentious
that contained no common sense.
But the lethargy had continued.