The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-08-25
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

I closed my story about Helena's s
 home coming around the dinner table, | for I left immediately after enjoying
 the great spread which the good wo- men had cooked in honor of the boys and the visitors.
 I had no idea when I left Birming
 ham that was going on to Montgom- cry with the Walker county bunch, but
 they put it up to me so straight that my presence was desired at the capitol ] that went on with them to be at the
 meeting of the state democratic execu- tive committee.
 am mighty glad that I went for
 It was some meeting, battle among , the giants as to whether the state com mittee would follow the request of the
 national committee or turn it down. The Susan B. Anthony amendment be-
 ing the stormy petreI as it was at the
 joint session of the legislature. 1 It is true that the stage had not
 been as elaborately set by its friends
 as was the case 4 few weeks back, yet
 the lobbies were alive with charming
 women who were eager to enlist advo- cates for or against the state commit
 tees taking action. The gallery was
 well filled and quite a number were on the floor of the house during the | debate.
 l I overheard one of the legislators say
 that the action of the committee in needing the request from higher up would not influence his vote on whit as ! he had been elected on his intelligence.
 This was too much for one of the
 was almost audible remarked "so that
 he could hear her, "The Lord have
 mercy on his constituency"
 | But the best thing which I heard
 was the half humorous complaint of one of the committeeman who in ex- ! blaming his vote to another member
 said, T haven't voted my real senti- 1 ments for the past twenty years. I had
 to swallow free silver and it was a
 bitter dose. I had to get on the water | wagon and it nearly killed me to do it; and now I am having woman's suf- 1 frange rammed down me by the na-
 tional committee.
 l It was dismal afternoon, for it rained and rained while the fight was raging. There were men lined up for the amendment whom I thought would | ha oiyct of favoring it whom I had felt would op- pose it. The controversy was pitched on a plane in keeping with the serious ness of the issue involved and never de- generated into personalities. It was a history making meeting.
 
 I could not help watching with sym
 pathy the faithful little band of women who for so long a time have given their best energies to putting the Susan B. Anthony amendment squarely up to both houses I had seen them take gamely their defeat in the senate a while back, and was glad that tfey got comfort out of the action of the state executive committees action. It
 was rift in the sky for them. 1
 | I dropped in several times at the hearing of the joint sessions of the house and senate to hear the revenue ! bill discussed, and believe me every item was hotly contested. would 1 hate to have to chaperone a money ! raising measure for under the most favorable circumstances it is never a pleasurable undertaking and is liable
 to be sandbagged or shot to pieces l
 I remember when it was considered a kind of joke for a man to go to the legislature. but it is a mans size | job now. I do not know who invented ever figured it out devised a scheme whereby the life of the legislator was l made an unhappy one. It is too much like the "Finnigan's yarn. They are ! off agin, on agin. and gone agin" be- 1 fore they get chance to do anything or know one another
 It is legislature on the installment plan, and I fear that some of the leg | islation being enacted will be as hard to meet in the future as some of the useless things we buy by paying so | much a week and then signing up to clean up the balance at stated intervals l so long as life lasts. There isn't any question but some of the measures are | mortgagpg the future. and before they are lifted the people will have to dig deep down in their jeans.
 But one who has been down to Mont gomery during the new fangled "legis- lative days" will never charge that the representatives are failing to earn their stipend as servants of the public, for believe me it is about the most har- rassed and overworked bunch of state men that have ever come in contact with and I have been about state houses quite good deal.
 If they are not in long and tedious sessions they are sitting in various committee meetings or coming together for conferences. If the senate ad- journs it is seized upon for a hearing of some kind and the same thing is true of the house. If both of them are at work during the day it is the usual thing to find the parlor floors of the Exchange or the Gay-Teague being used to hear visiting delegations who