The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-01-30
Ladies Appeared Before the
Council Last Night
!aAMMETT AS CHAMPION
Mr.. MahoWaId Also Gave APP
proyaI; Matter Coming Up
At Next Meet

Request that the city OF .Mankato
employ a police woman permanent
ly in the police department was made
Of the city council last evening by
f, Mrs. c. H. Nerbovig and Mrs. H. r.
Wiecking. Both ladies appeared be.
fore the city dads and spoke of the
work which Miss Mary Flavian, en-
ployed for two weeks at carnival
time. has accomplished. They point
ed t. this - need for placing a wo-
nan permanently on the force.
Mrs. Nerbcvig related the efforts
: the various clubs of the city had
made to get police woman here,
following a speech which Miss Flor
ence Whipple delivered, telling of
the condition relative to young girls
! which existed at this time in many
! cities. NJ
"Our idea is to take care of young
girls before they are sent to state
homes, provided for their care" Mrs.
| Nerbovig declared. "Mankato is a
school town and college city. We
have large drifting population here
and a police woman is needed to look
after the young girls"
Every wonlan's club in the city,
Mrs. Nerbovig declared had gone on
record as favoring having police
woman permanently in Mankato. She
declared that it was her belief the
/ Mankato carnival was the clean, sue
cessful affair it proved to be largely
through the efforts of Miss Flavian.
! Mayor Walters declared that the
whole question resolved itself to the
, matter of paying the police woman,
| the levy having been made without
any allowance for such purposes.
Mayor Waters and Mrs. Nerbovig
engaged in some discussion and the
. mayor asked members of the council
for their views.
Hammett Favors Police Woman.
81 think if We can have eight po-
| licemen to look after the men we
ought to have one policewoman to
look after the welfare of the women
and girls Councilman Hammett
stated. ~
Mr.. Hammett then referred to the
fact that he knew Of four delinquent
girls which Miss F1avian had taken
care of during the week she was at
| work here.
From what / have seen of her
work in the last few days makes me
heartily in favor Of policewoman,"
said Mr.. Hammett. "If only one girl
had been picked up the plan would
be decidedly worth while. l will say
this, that / think police woman
would have to work in conjunction
with the chief of police, no matter
who he was"
"She would have to work in con-
junction with every man on the
force" cut in Mayor Waters.
MahowaId Was Favorable.
Councilman Mahowald declared he
thought the records of Miss Flavian's
work for the week showed that some
one as needed here and that he
would like to see her retained per-
manently if there was a place for
her.
Mrs. H. R. Wiecking asked why a
woman could not take the place of
one of the men on the police force
1--WE can't do that at ALL" declared
Mayor Waters. I'VE haven't enough
men on the force now. We can't
change the force any Furthermore
wouldn't think of letting one of the
men off to make place for woman"
"Once in a while we hear of a
resignation on the force" said Mrs.
Wiecking.
"Well we can't change it any, we
haven't enough men now and wo-
man couldn't take the place of a
man." replied the mayor.
Mrs. Wiecking Took Exception.
Mrs. Wiecking took exception, be-
ing of the belief that woman could
perform the duties as we'll as a man.
that hereabouts Mankato was spoken
i of as having a bad reputation. She
said when women started out to
achieve certain results they were re-
ferred to as having "a bee in their
bonnet"
81 think it's good thing for wo-
men to get bee in their bonnet"
said Councilman Hammett. ''They
should be interested in city matters
and should feel free to come before
the council at any time"
Mayor Waters stated that he un-
derstood the various women's clubs
had fund pledged to help pay a
policewoman and asked why Tag
Day could not be held to raise funds
to. pay her until the next tax levy
was made. ~ g
I'VE don't want to do that be-
cause the question naturally arises.
if the city can pay a number of po-
licemen why can't one police woman
be placed on the force?" responded
Mrs. Nerbovig. ISL #E
After some further discussion it
was agreed to bring the matter up
at the next meeting of the council
when Councilman Steiner would be
present.
Plans For Paving.
City Engineer Dart presented to
the council the plans. specifications
and estimates for the paving that is
proposed to be done during the COM
ing summer. In this connection Mr..
Dart called to the attention of the
council the fact that local dealers
In stone, and other paving materials
We're interested in getting the con-
tracts for the work. He said he was
of the opinion that outside bidders