Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-15
AS ONE WOMAN SEES IT
Women Are Today Establishing q
Precedent Instead Of Following
One or Altering One In the
Political Ward
by SARAH ID. LOwRIE

by SAhAH ~. bOWhlb
T LISTENED to a very lively rattle Of
L machine. gun fire today at a meeting
from a woman who knew what she was
talking about Reduced to minimum what
she said was
''This is nothing but a paper organiza-
tion. 1t has been talked about and met
about and decided about for over year, and
it has not begun to function yetP'
IL reminded me Of Alice in Wonderland
when she defed the creatures with:
''You are nothing but a pack of cards -
A good many organizations that would
like to feel the change that comes from new
lose their old ideas and influences; these
stick to them like oak leaves to an oak tree
long after they are dead; all through the
winter, in fact. It takes the buster Of
March to insult them of their perch.
In the case Of the indignant woman the
paper scheme would not function because
the old why's of doing things had not really
got clustered and blown away.
am told by churchmen Of various denom-
nations that the same thing is true with
the new business plans for the churches-the
paper plans for new deal will not function
because the old ways are not wholly dis
credited, are still in fact functioning lamely.
TT rs very hard to put new wine into old
L bottles As matter of physics the
new wine, II it is any good. will burst the
old bottles, which Is a waste oil round,
spoils the old, spills the new. Which is
why, I suppose, since Jesus day to this.
Christendom has been noted for the new
things it has started rather than for the old
things II has preserved.
II you want to see old things preserved 70
beyond the pale of Christendom to China and
India and Tibet.
"Behold l keep all things the same''-
there you have the creed Of the East in a
nutshell.
"Behold make all things new there
you have the creed OF the westward moving
religion in a sentence uttered by dweller IN
the East 1000 years ago.
It sometimes happens however, once in
q thousand years or so, that there Is
chance to begin new thing without having
the pain or the trouble of destroying an old
thing.
ginning to make themselves actively felt as
q political force in this country.
They ore doing that interesting thing
establishing a precedent instead OF follow
ing one or altering one.
I for one am immensely occupied, in
observing the process, in watching them
function politically. think every one Is.
THREE years ago this month I went with
i four other women who represented about
1000 women members OF an organization or
this state to one of the most important
state functionaries to ask his help In
matter involving the welfare of many, many
thousands of women OF the state. we
waited our turn. long after the appointed
hour, while man after man passed into
the sacred inner Office before us, ON one
pretext or another. and we we're finally ad-
mitted with tho proviso that we state our
errand US quickly as possible. a newspaper
L. had GaI for " 10
out under the plea that our business was
private. We were listened to politely and
refused politely with the remark that the
women we represented and the help 1or
women that we asked were not OF sufiicient
importance to warrant any political ald. ~
mar the fortunes Of our host by his coming
publicly to our aid, we could not under any
guise help him by our gratitude or approval,
so we we're bowed out, and the newspaper
reporter was beckoned loftily in and given
n brief-entirely inspired-version Of the
interview. which made his subsequent para
graph report Of the alleged occurrence in an
obscure part of his paper of no historic
value whatever.
V1HE other day the Mayor and his cabinet
l. devoted whole day to group OF women
representing many thousands OF women IN
the state in order to explain, at the request
of the president of their organization, just
how the women and the public official could
mutually benefit one another by CO. operation
and sympathetic understanding. The press
was not only admitted to the interview, but
put the news under front page headlines. so
much for the way woman as a pohticai
factor has begun already to function.
had a sample today OF how in every city
of the country yesterday and today the
functioning was continuing.
There is In Washington just now a com
pf rpnrpHpntlnR
organizations which are national in their
membership: General Federation of
Women's Clubs, National Council OF Women,
Women's Christian Temperance Union
National Consumers League, Associate Col
lcge Alumnne. American Home Economics
Association, National Federation Of Busi-
ness and Professional Women's Clubs, Ma
Teachers Associations and the National
League of Women Voters.
Vow this committee of some eighteen Sc
lectcd women is in Washington to work for
legislative program in order to push
through certain measures that they claim
more than 10000. 600 women back as vital
20 the welfare Of the country. They are
lobbyists
The bills they have chosen to back first
as being the most vital are
The Sheppard Towner bill, granting fed
cral aid for maternity and infancy; the
Gronna bill. creating federal livestock com
mission Tie Curtis Gard child labor bill for
the District of Columbia the Smith TOwner
educational bill the Rogers bill for the in
dependent citizenship Of married women, and
the Fcss home economies bill providing a
federal appropriation for teaching home
economies.
OF these bills, two are already on the CON
grossioual calendar. The Gronna bill is the
when it adjourned last June. The Shep-
pard. Towner bill is on the Senate calendar