Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-08-11
WOMAN OPPOSES MATERNITY
BILL.
BY Frederic j. Haskin.

SON, who has had the spotlight of public opinion
turned in her direction almost continuously
since her election as an Oklahoma Represen-
tative to Congress, is becoming the cynosure
of all eyes because of the stand which she has
taken opposing the passage OF the Maternity
Bill for which women's suffrage organizations
ell over the country have been fighting Vigor-
ously.
This bill provides that two million dollars be
appropriated by the Federal Government for
the first year, and a like sum be provided by
the states, the exact amount apportioned accord
ing to population, to pay public health nurses
to instruct mothers in hygiene and the care of
infants, to establish consultation centers, ana
to cover the expenses of medical and nursing
care for mothers and children, at home or IN
hospitals. The exact use of the proposed fund
would rest largely with federal and state officials.
Miss Robertson's specific objection to the
Sheppard-Towner Bill is that nothing definite
is promised in it. There is much talk of sums
of money to be set aside for the pubic protec-
ton of maternity and infancy and providing a
method of cooperation between the Government
of the United States and the several states but
no distinct statement as to when and where such
appropriations shall be actually used. All prac-
teal development of such protection is left
rather vaguely to the Children's Bureau of the
Labor Department and the Child Hygiene
Division of the State Boards of Health.
IF the bill is passed" said Miss Robertson.
"the state of affairs with small organizations
now handling such work will be as it was with
the women's knitting societies when the war
stopped. All the good work that Is now oelng
done through many channels will be stopped;
Conditions will be worse than before the bill
was passed because nothing will be actually
started by the passage of this measure and
everybody will be contented, believing that
will now be cared for"
Another reason Miss Robertson OBJECTS SO
strenuously to the Sheppard-Towner Bill is
because she feels it to be exceedingly paternal-
lstic in it's intent. In this connection, she says
to the woman voter:
IF, in your judgment, this legislation is I'M
necessary for the reason that the family, the
the municipality and the state,
local conditions, can care for
their own without national mandate, write your
pnnOrpSgman and saw SO.' AS she does not
believe in forcing people to go to church, as
proposed in the much-discusse Blue Laws, So
in federal supervision of maternity problems.
In a statement warning the women all over
the country to read and consider well the latent
as well as more obvious possibilities suggested
this bill, Miss Robertson says:
Remember, the political women who are sup
porting this bill, wishing the first test OF their
power in legislation to be a master stroke, have
used the most touching and irresistible appear
that could be placed before a body or american
men. Mothers of America, is this an lnslduous
attempt to secure most dangerous class legisla-
tion-the legislation of sex?
IT oppose this bill, basing my action upon the
that my sister women have not been fairly
dealt with, that even to the great-hearted,
President, it has been claimed that
the mothers want it and ask it, when the vast
majority know nothing of it"
Miss Robertson, descendant of ten generations
Of preachers of the gospel. who has herselt
cared for Indian orphans and children OF
Legitimate parentage to make of them GOOD
clean citizens, does not speak SO forcibly on this
Dill which mas passed the SENATE ana II pShuili6
in the House, without having first thor
oughly investigated the matter.
Il have consulted many OF my colleagues.
Miss Robertson in her drawing, easy speech,
and L have found only one who said he had
actually read the bill through. He said he was
to vote for it because he had no inten-
ton of being crucifed back home. l am now
sending inquiries to women all over the country
to see if they have read the bill and know what
it means" Miss Robertson suggested that 1tl
might seem to a layman as though the PHI was
to evade the understanding of lawyers,
and the lawyers on the committee winch had
the bill especially under discussion were
to admit they didn't understand it.
The lady from oklahoma has personally given
to any other legislation now pending. She says
that she is most decidedly in favor of legislation
to protect maternity and infancy, but such legls-
should be framed in the most definite and
simple language possible.
To the casual observer, Miss Robertson would
not appear as a if seen on the
street, but rather as the practical, home-body,'
that she likes to acknowledge herself to pc.
Large, rather slow and ponderous, and dressed
in simple, comfortable clothes, Miss Robertson
might be suspected of planning a thousand and
to tell the women all over the United
States why she does not favor the passage or
the much-talked-about Sheppard-Towner Bill.
In her office, however, she is not so true TO
feminine type. She really dislikes having her
secretary "straighten up" her desk and has no
more desire than any masculine congressional
representative to solve problems for the con-
of districts other than her own. Yet,
Just because she is a woman, many are the
requests that come to her desk that should be
referred to other congressman.
On the other hand, she is quite feminine
enough to be thoroughly delighted with a bou-
quet of gorgeous American Beauties which the
Ambassador of Peru sent her in recognition of
her part in selecting the mission sent by the
United States to celebrate the one hundredth
anniversary of Peru's birth as a republic. Such
is the complexity of woman.