The Washington herald., 1921-02-27
Women Leaders
7 Listed as Liberal
Heads of Organized
Feminist Movement of
"Aduanced Ideas"

The advancement of certain ideas thu.
have, in the past, caused the Attorney Gen.
eral to see red" may be expected from
the women who have taken the lead in
American feminism. There is no use at
tempting to deny that pas.
The women who have the National Wo-
mans party affairs rather firmly in their
grasp are liberals" Senator Reed doesn't
understand that word He thinks a Ger
tain political party in Great Britain has il
copyrighted and that its use is absolutely
forbidden on this side of the Atlantic. Sen
ator Reed, along with Attorney General
Palmer, probably will discover the differ
cncc.
In the last election, the newly enfran-
chiscd voters did not have a fair chance
to make showing. Such will not be the
case in the next national election. Old
Cusrders (or Guardians, If that is bettcr1
may as well take note of that fact II
they will go through the list of women
prominent in the recent convention here,
they may recognize some namcs-sur-
names; the SuTnames of men who have been
prominently identified with strongly pro-
gressNe or liberal movements in. Ameri-
can politics recently.
The National Woman's party workers in
few years will constitute an "Old Guard"
themselves. And Senator Reed, who NAV
be called a member OF the Old Guard de-
partmcnt OF the Democratic party, prob
ably will have discovered by that time
that the word Liberal" means something in
America. Others of his kind will have
made the same discovery.
Fcminiscm itself is liberal There are
women connected with the National Wo-
mans party whose ideas the Attorney Cen
cral may recognize. Those ideas arc not
necessarily red-but they have rosy hue
That IS to say, there some ideas ad-
vanced among these women that are, to Q
thorough-going conservative, radical"
= =
1t has taken merely years of fighting 10
achieve certain moral reforms by work
within the predominating American parties
Economic reforms present a different prob
lem. Prohibition, after years Of work, was
brought about. Noman's suffrage, after
years of untiring effort, mainly on the part
OF the women who are about TO become
the "Old Guard" of American women in
politics, was achieved through the media
OF the two parties-the Republican and the
Democratic
Both have made some claims to credit
for the final passage and adoption OF the
Nineteenth amendment. They may But
the women of the National Woman's party
thank neIther democrats nor Republicans
wholeheartedly for the result They rather
thank themselves. 1t is too easy to point
to spots in both party or CARNATIONS that
retarded the suffrage movement and delayed
the amendment OF the Constitution
+ r +
Liberals" or "Progressves" or RAD
GALS" who seek 10 achieve economic re-
forms, however, arc hopeful over the pros
poets offered by the woman element in
American politics. They have found wo-
men sympathetic 10 their ideas and, indeed,
some of the most vigorous workers for
economic reforms are-snd II has been
thus for a long timc-women.
In this, there seems to be nothing Tor
the conservative to fear, although he may
be reluctant to approve the political pro-
grams that will be offered by American
women.
1t is possible, of course, that American
women can be divided and generally herd
ed into one or the other of the two major
parties, but the signs point in another di-
rection. They point to a third party. And
it would not be as surprising to US as
perhaps it would be to Senator Reed if
the name of that party were Liberal"
B. p. G.