Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-15
YOU NEVER CAN TELL
WHAT WOMEN WILL DO
The Political Significance Of Mrs.
o'Grady, Of New York, and Mrs.
JurFst, Of Philadelphia

1oriet, OF PhlIadelphia
Upon the desk of Police Commissioner
~ Enright, in New York, Mrs. Ellen
O'Grady violently hurled-hurled, mark you
the sort Of badge that, carried in ones
handbag or worn on ones chest, informs
the world that one is a deputy commissioner
In the police department that has not cleared
up one crime mystery Of Importance in a
whole year.
IL was a very nice badge. 1t was gold, or
gold -plated--in New York you never can be
sure of these things-and it bounced and
tinkled sensstionally among the pens on Mr..
Enright's desk. With 1t went a $4,000 job.
I'm through J" grimly said the only woman
deputy police commissioner that New York
ever had. Then the lady issued an indict-
ment Of the police administration that blazed
on all the front pages and shocked the mayor
and gricved the commissioner and caused all
good Tammany men to wag their heads and
say that women aren't fitted for public life.
The people Of New York turned momen
tarlly from their movies and their tickers
ard their Holsters and their midnight shows
and their three o'clock in the afternoon
breakfasts to listen again to charges Of In
efficiency, graft and withering corruption in
the police department. And what they are
saying is that, Of course. women aren't
form important executive duties. The Lady
Commissioner was tactess and she didn't
know the fine arts of compromise that carry
you so far in American politics. She made
a scene and she gave a lot Of inside stuff
to the papers. Not chubby, that.
Men are ADLER and steadier. say the critics
Of former Deputy Commissioner O'Grady.
A man would have played the game and kept
his head and gone along peaceably and COM
fortably instead Of kicking up n row that
cannot do anybody any good. But women!
You never can tell about women. Here in
this city. for example. While Mrs O'Grady
was hurling her god-or gold -plated-badse
on Mr.. Enright's desk, Mrs. Louis Jurist,
who is more or less in public life as a
member of the board of managers of the
House Of Detention, blithey laughed at the
fattering estimate of Judge Brown and the
Municipal Court recently published by Sen
ator Penrose. This, said Mrs. Jurst, was
"puerile political rrattle.
Here, then, Is still another woman getting
in the way of the forces of destiny and
actually denying the authority of the Great
Voice. Reckless and impractical business,
this. All the hard boiled gentlemen who
used to preach against suffrage will see in
the cases of Mrs Jurist and Mrs. O'Grady
IulI OF InelT worst ItArS. lney
told you that these things would happen.
Hylan said that he had nothing to say.
Enright said that he had nothing to say.
Mr.. Penrose would not trouble himself to
answer Mrs. Jurist. But we know what
these gentlemen think
They think that wOman's place is in the
home.
1t appears that Mrs. O'Grady hurled her
gold--or gold plated badge back to Com
missioner Enright because there seemed TO
be pretty thoroughly systematizcd effort
among the higher ups to prevent her and her
assistants from doing efficiently the work
for which they were appointed.
4 deputy commissioner in New York oc.
cupies a post similar to that Of an assistant
director Of public safety in Philadelphia
Mrs. O'Grady's department was supposed 10
function almost exclusively in the interest
OF women and children But the operatives
OF that department were warned by those
above them to keep of Broadway and
latterly. when tho deputy commissioner and
her detectives attempted TO enforce the city
ordinances devised for the protection Of
unattended children in the moving picture
theatres, they were reprimandcd and ordered
to behave. Mrs. O'Grady-womPn are per.
verse-ordcrcd the law enforced in defiance
the theatre combine, and then, in mysterious
ways, the work of her department was hin.
derrd and confused, She told the reporters
that the police department is ruled BY poll
ticians and gratters for their own ends, and
that you must play the political game and
wink at all sorts Of informal jObbery II Won
wish to be comfortable in it,
That, by analogy, IS about what Mr..
Jurist said Of Judge Browns administration
of the Municipal Court, which seems TO be
established AZ n sort OF shelter for people
with political friends,
New Workers. will soon forget all nbout
the lady who once was deputy police com
missioner, and an institution that has 90
many powerful friends as the Philadelpbia
Municipal Court isn't likely 10 be pinched
for money despite anything that Mrs. Jnrist
may say
Politicians who distribute important offices
will be increasingly reluctant, after incidents
Hike that Of Mrs. O'Grady's gold---or gold
platcd-badRe, to receive women in the
inner councils or open ways for them 10
important Offices They will say. in nil
carncstness, that women aren't dcpcndablc
Hut It Is just because women cannot he
depended on to play the political game as
Tammany men play it, because, indeed
they are often tcmprramPntally unable 70
make the sort OF compromises that would
have kept Mrs, OGrady's $4,000 lob safe
and sure that WOman's place is not eyclu-
sivey in the home,
The Lady Deputy was woeflly imprac.
tical II you are to judge by ordinary rules
She is out of the department now. and
therefore abe is a closed incident and some.
body more amenable to political reason will