The Washington herald., 1921-07-26
SHEPPARD-TOWNER
BLLDENOUNCEDB BY
MISS ROBERTSON
Congresswomen Calls 1t
Paternalistic and Class
Legislation.

Characterizing the Sheppard Town
er maternity bill as class legisla-
tion of sex" and describing it as
potent with "paternalistic possibili-
ties Of incalculable danger" Miss
Alice Robertson, Oklahoma, only
woman member of Congress, in an
exclusive interview in The wash
ington Herald, makes an appeal to
the American woman voter" to op-
pose 1t.
The Significance of Miss Robert
sons attitude Is best understood
when 1t Is remembered that the
Sheppard-Towner bill Is the one
piece OF legislation upon which is
concentrated the full strength of the
woman suffrage organizations and
which was to have been the monu-
ment to mark the victory of suf-
frage.
According to other members of
Congress. who were shown the state
ment. Miss Robertson's action marks
q definite line of cleavage between
the lazy from Oklahoma and the
suffrage organizations and indicates
that she has thrown down the chal-
,enge to battle. The statement fol-
lows:
Miss Robertson's Statement.
ITO the American woman voter.
as an individual: Do
"On July %, by vote OF sixty
three to seven-twenty-six Senators
absent--the United States Senate
passed the bill variousIy known as
the baby" the maternity" or the
Il IN Ill ~ A
is now pending consideration in the
House. Its supporters assert that
II has the undivided support of the
women voters of America.
81 was one of those millions of
| conservative. home-ioving women,
who never asked to vote, who dread
ed new and heavy responsibilities, but
God in infinite wisdom placed upon
us the burden of the suffrage. 1t
matters not now whether wessouGht
this duty or not, We cannot evade
, it, and from cowardice or Incidence
we must not now fail our country
Claims Bill PaternaIistic.
"It is your bounden duty, your
| inalienable right as an individual to
know the real meaning OF this bill.
| Send a postcard to your Senator or
| member of Congress or to me ask
| ing for a COPY and when you re-
| ceiye the bill. examine II carefully,
see IL 1t does not carry with II
power small in its beginning ana
seemingly innocuous. but with pat
ternalistic possibilities of incalcul-
able danger Ask other women
about IT, ask your husbands, your
legal friends, and when you have
made UP your mind, tell us. your
representatives in Washington.
Remember, the political women
who are supporting this bill. wish
| ing the first test of their power in
| legislation to be a master stroke
have used the most touching and ir-
resistible appeal that could be
placed before a body of American
men. Mothers of America, is this an
insidious attempt to secure most
dangerous class legislation-the
| class legislation of sex?
It oppose this bill. basing my ac-
tion upon the belief that my sister
women have not been fairly dealt
with. that even to the great hearted,
sympathetic president. it has been
claimed that the mothers want it
| and ask for it. when the vast ma
| jority know nothing of IL.
Il have personall'' given more
time, study and thought to this bill
than to any other legislation now
pending; that has been my duty as
the only woman who would have a
right to lift her voice either for or
against, as a national law-maker
desiring to be prepared when this
| fateful issue comes, to speak for
the women in humble homes whose
toll is glcrified by love Of husband
and babies.
"If in your judgment this legisla-
tion is Unnecessary for the reason
that the family, the community, the
municipality and the State. under
standing local conditions, can care
for their own without national
mandate or espionage. say So"