The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-03-19
League of Women Voters
Is Neutral Society
WIND-UP THE MEETING
Gathering In Mankato Proved
Highly Profitable To the
Attendants
From Mondays Daily.

III EIilteIfleWS given 10 repre-
sentative of The Free Press at tn,
close OF the. second district confer
ence of the Minnesota League O
Women Voters Saturday afternoon
Mrs. c. J. Laurisch of this city, Mrs
ID. l.. Morse of Blue Earth, distric
chairman. and President LELAND o
Minneapolis, spoke of The purposes q
the conference. stating that for tn,
present party politics will not hav,
sway.
These ladies said that owing TO tbs
fact that the women of Minnesota
will vote for president this year, tn,
conference was called for the pur,
pose of becoming familiar with IL,
process of voting. and the essential.
OF good government Another objec
of the conference was TO make thu
votes of the women effective for com
com welfare. This work of education
will be carried out, irrespective .
party affiliation. 1t is planned TO Civ;
all of the women of Minnesota an op
portunity to work effectively for i'm
proved social legislation
Mrs. ID. l.. Morse in the followin:
words expressed her ideas of the OBJ
jects of the second district confer
ence. The League of Women Voters
of Minnesota is absolutely a neutra
organization, when speaking OF :!
from the standpoint of political par
ties. 1t is purely for the education o.
citizenship, and the power behind tn,
vote. for constructive and Progressive
legislation,
President LELAND and Mrs. Laur.
isclI concurred in the opinions of Mrs
Morse. and expressed a wish thai
every woman voter in the state viii
affiliate herself with the politica
party which best fills her ideals o.
good government.
Report On Finances.
Just before the close of the con-
ference, the report of the finance
committee, headed by Mrs S. B. Will
son Of this city, was read. This show
ed that in the campaign funds sub
scribed during the conference amour
ted to S429.9S. About 500. of this
was by ladies from outside the com
~. Following the reading of the re-
port, Mrs. D. l.. Morse stated that il
every woman jim the state subscribed
ten cents toward the campaign fund
the necessary amount would be
raised, but she hoped that no woman
would restrict herself to that small
donation. President LELAND explained
that these funds were necessary to
maintain headquarters etc She
thought that each county should raise
about six hundred dollars. part OF
which will go to the state fund.
In the adoption of the resolutions
which were published in Saturday 6
issue of The Free Press, another
clause was added thanking Miss Cor
nelia Mansfield, and others who aided
in carrying out the musical program
OF the conference. A quartette made
up of prominent men and women
vocalists of this, city, favored the
afternoon meeting with a number OF
we'll rendered vocal selections.
Miss Florence Monahan, chairman
of the league, spoke at some length
on the necessity of such a movement.
Among the laws which the speaker
said should be unified are those re
lating to marriage, divorce, and the
property rights of women.
Address BY S. r., Child.
S. r. Child. chairman OF the COM
mittee on unification of laws of the
Minnesota Bar association, gave a
very lengthy and exhaustive address
on the subject. He said: 1.-The impor-
lance of uniform state laws has never
been fully appreciated, and the
League of Women. Voters will find
no stronger agency, for the promotion
of such laws as women may deem of
primary importance to them That
there is an increasing demand for
true unification OF laws in evident
from the nature of our institution
For present purposes, we may con-
slider the state as sovereign, from which
all our laws eminate. The federal
government has only such powers as
were delegated to it by the states in
the federal constitution. Substantially
all of these are included in the pow
ers to regulate money, and commerce
between the states, TO conduct pos
lal system and to wage war all of
which is given in less than 200 words.
all of our laws, such as
those relating to the family, the con-
duct of business. civil and criminal
laws. stop at the state line. A judg-
ment in one state cannot be enforced
i'm another, and crime committed i,l
one state in not punishable in anoth-
sr& Therefore. a unification of laws
can come only through uniform state
laws ai.. -e... .-5s.s
"This is an age of statutory law.
Whereas the main part of our law.
the common law, grew out of custom,
and usage, declared in court decis-
ions, substantially all the present day
growth is through statutory enact
ments.''
.. Meeting of Legislatures.
Forty one state legislatures meet
and six meet annually.
More than seven thousand members
Of the legislature are in the earnest
struggle to improve human cordi-
ions by statuary laws. More than
Il, 900 new laws are put upon the
statute books of all the states every
wo years. And while this movement
IS going on, except for the work of
he national conference there is no
organized effort to express i'm the
same language, laws enacted for the
same purpose in different lStat4s.u AS
10 two perssbg seeing fl,ai Is a isAd II