The New York herald., 1921-02-07
Mrs. Nj. TOscan Bennett Go
ing There to Help Along
Economic Evolution.
TO LIVE In LOG CABIN
She and Her Husband Will
Sell Connecticut Prop
critics to Be Foot Free.
ACT, WORK, HER MOTTO
BrookwOod School Will Get
Family's Spare Cash in
Citizenship Uplift.
ACT, WORK, HER MOTTO

HARTFORD Conn. Feb. 6.--There are
any number oe fine women up here in
Connecticut who cannot get over feeling
little scared every time they hear the
name of Mrs. NJ. Toscan Bennett.
My dear" flutters lady who
wouldn't for the world be so mean as to
stoop to carrying tales to another lady
who Immediately would snub anyone so
tactless as to offer scandal a tea time
polenic. have you heard about Mrs.
Bennett?"
And right there the ultra-conservative
brace, themselves but trim their ears to
catch every syllable. for they know
they're due for a tingle. They know
1t will be a perfectly proper tingle;
good bracing tingle that will awaken in
some of them old. smothered rebellions
that had their beginnings back on "the
beach" when Frances Day was the
smartest, strongest, most athletic, most
defiant and altogether the most charm
ing youngster in the Connecticut set.
In those days she simply obeyed the
healthy impulses of her clear, keen mini
and therefore rode a diamond frame BIZ
cycle as fast as boy, pulled an oar
with lads who later made their crews.
swan to the float or the island and back
without resting and dominated by the
sheer force of her character and strength
ol fieT young fnuSClcS.
Became sociaIistic.
SO the milder spirited girls. who were
married just about the same time Miss
Day was married to Martin Tos-
can Bennett and proceeded to be-
come mothers of splendid fami-
lies just as she did. have come
along until this day depending upon her
yet for no small amount of their excite
ment She became socialistic in her po-
litical opinions. She became a militant
suffragist and even was arrested IN
Washington for participating in the
burning, just outside the White House
grounds, of President Wilson's speeches.
She became trades unionist and went
about fighting for improved working con-
ditions and pay for wage earners of her
own sex. She went into sociology the
same way she used to ride bicycle and
swim and drive horses--wlth all tho
might OF her mind and body. She
preached peace when the meaning of the
word seemed to have become a mock
cry. Finally she Joined the Labor Party
of the United States and, later. TIE
farmer-Labor Party and ran for United
States Senator last November on that
party's ticket. -
ITO save my SOUL" she said yesterday
just before taking the train for Boston,
of which she is national secretary. is
holding ways and means conference, II
can't see why my leaving Hartford for
the Brookwood School should arouse
such interest. Mr.. Bennett and / arc
going to Katonah. N. Y.-that's where
the colony or school really is situated
not to become recluses nor to participate
in any freak movement or become MEM
bers OF any queer cult. We are going
tnere becuse we think we will there be
able to do more to bring about or help
bring about the political. sociological and
economic departures from the existing
order-in n normal. peaceable. orderl~
way. Education will accomplish It. AMI
II is in the interests of education that
we are going TO Brookwood."
VIII Live In Log Cabin.
NJ. Toscan Bennett. her lawyer hus-
band, refused To have anything to say
about IL. They intend selling their COM
Portable but not impressive Hartford
house at % Forest avenue. and their
country place over at Pennington, and
carly In the fall take up their abode in a
stanch log cahtn--huge fire place broad
book shelves. unfinished roof beams and
all--near the Brookwood School Their
two daughters. Katherine and Frances.
already students at Brookwood. will live
with them. The cabin has yet to be
built
we are not disposing OF our property
because we think we shall be better citi-
zens or more righteous without it," Mrs
Bennett explained TO one of her friends
The newspapers have made us rather
absurd. What money we can afford 10
dispense with we shall devote to the
education of youngsters at Brookwooo
and lsewhere--educatio that will make
them better citizens better fitted to take
part In the new order which Is coming
through evolution. not bloody revolution.
Look about you to-day and you can see
II coming. II must come. The public
wants IT,"
Then she explained that she and her
husband wished 20 be free OF cucumber
ing property that they might travel
wherever they desired or TO any place
they might be called or see field for
their political endeavors.
"Unencumbcred by property we can
go any place, any time. unfettered by
ties and unworried by those little homely
things that sometimes make prolonged
stays away impossible"
Her son, NJ Toscan Bennett, Jr., will
not accompany the family TO Brookwood.
He is Just out Of preparatory school and
enters the freshman class at Wisconsin,
IN september. He's a wnaie OF DON
with visions OF making the varsity foot
ball team---tackle or guard proferred.N
Sees Nothing Frcakish.
Good Lord" he laughed when asked
what he thought of the family plan. 81
don't see what folks find In our scheme
10 cause 80 much excitement. My two
sisters are awfully glad 20 be down in
katonah. They wanted mother and
father to come down too and theyrs
going. Personally. Id like to go. but
I'm booked ..r college for few years.
.~-s Why. OF course. / share mothers
and fathers political opinions in as far
as I'm able I'm pretty much Of kid.
YOU sec, and my education is very far
from a tangible thing. wish you fell
.owg would get II out OF your heads that
there's anything freakish about this"
~ don't mind the publicity provided Il
helps the school" Mrs Bennett told her
friends But you can hardly blame us
for rcsentine the silly insinuations that
we arc doing something fanatical Nor
are we going In for some dilNantte fad.
We arc doing the most natural thing In
the world following our own lncllna-
tiors. Personally believe Il would be
an ideal world II people could follow
their own inclinatlona. Maybe | had bet