The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-29
they SHOULD VOTE.
Miss Robertson Urges Women
to Use Ballot.
She Brands All Who Do Not
Register as Slackers.

Just as every woman VINO did not
help her country during the war was
a Stacker, so is every woman Stacker
who does not register and vote now
that it has become her duty declared
Miss Alice Robertson of Muskogee.
OKLA, who is to be the only woman
representative at Washington in
March. Miss Robertson was the prin-
cipal speaker at the annual banquet
of the Shawnee County Political
Science club Friday night.
The congresswoman-elec talked to
several hundred person at the BAN
quet. She announced that she would
lust talk and not make a speech"
That is what she did. Her hearers
were eoon leaning forward eagerly to
catch. every word of her friendly al
most heart to- heart talk. While Miss
Robertson spoke there was none Of
the boredom which sometimes per-
vades the atmosphere on such occa-
Eions.
Urges Women to Vote.
Miss Robertson's branding of wo-
men who do not register and vote as
slackerss might convey the meaning
that the woman representative is a
an Anti-suffragist. She fought the
giving of women equal suffrage rights
But she feels that now the vote is
granted # is the serious duty of wo-
men to Exercise the vote.
What do you think the suffragists
said to me when 1 was elected? They
said: You work against suffrage. but
when we have it, you grab the prize
of it ALL I didn't grab it. They made
me take it. I didn't want it. but felt
that l was being drafted to serve my
country and 1 could not refuse"
In discussing the meaning of, the
opening of political life to women,
Miss Robertson said:
For Good Government.
I'VE must all get out of rotten poll
tics into GOOD government. Men
leave the upbringing of children to
the MOI hers. If the mothers see to
the teeth of the children, their ade-
noids, their Sunday school attendance,
their manners-if they have any-and
what they study in school. is it not
true that mothers should teach their
children good government and correct
citizenship?
With women's broadening of du-
ties, wonder if they can give up
bridge? Have they time sor it? We
don't like our boys to hide in barn
lofts and play cards-or whatever it is
they play, but are they any worse than
their mothers who sit in their parlors
end play for prizes-gamble, in other
words?
A Pioneer Teacher.
A large part of the talk of Miss
Robertson was devoted to her eXper-
fence, with the Indians and her love
for that race. She was a pioneer
teacher IN Indian villages, slept in
Indian htfts, worked with all her en-
ergy to establish schools for them. and
finally was made supervisor of all the
schools of the five tribes in Oklahoma.
The Indians are the highest type
of the so-called uncivilized people,"
she said aTheir understanding of
| God as their Great Spirit is closely
related to Dur beliefs = -
Mrs Minnie E. Grinstead, Mrs. Ida
! NJ Walker. and Miss Nellie Cline.
Kansas women legislators, Mrs. w. "A.
Johnston, wife of Chief Justice Johns
ton, and Senator James Finley, of
Chanute, preceded Miss Robertson on
the speakers program at the banquet.
Miss Robertson was followed by Gov
ernorz Allen. The Rev. E. J. Kulp,, of
the First Methodist church, gave the
| invocation. Mrs. Homer Foltz, club
president, introduced the speakers. No
banquet of the Shawnee County Po-
| litical Science. club was ever more
| more interesting program than that OF
last night
A Brave Man.
Many listeners at the banquet con-
sidered Senator James Finley a brave
| man, for he took a stand on the
cigaret question. He declared the
| present law farce and said:
Il would rather see the present law
repealed and see good law passed
| He decried the fact that many 9TH
err of our statutes are of farcical ma
| ture, such as those in regard to gam
bling, speeding and even prohibition
Mrs. Gr.nstead Answers.
, Mrs. Grinstead defiantly answered
Senator Finley'S remarks on the CT
Garet law by saying:
II am sure the Legislators will not
repeal a law and hurt its citizens III
| any way"
| The decidedly differing opinions on
woman suffrage as expressed on one
hand by the Kansas women Legislators
and on the other by Miss Robertson
were plainly understood and the ma
itional woman legislator-to-be did not
niince any words in telling of her anti
i suffrage feeling after her Kansas sis
ters had voiced their enthusiastic
suffrage policies. But the duty OF
women to. vote and work for better
citizenship was emphasized by all wo-
men speakers.
More than two hundred persons
were present at the banquet including
| mary prominent legislators, editors
authors and other noted Kansans
gathered in Topeka for the various
activities of the week end. The BAN
, Duet of the club. with the exception
ally strong program of speakers, was
! timely and one of the most success
| full events of what is probably the
most generally interesting week of the
year in Topeka.