The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1922-04-19
INTRODUCTORY MEETING

The League of Women Voters in
compliment to federation officers, Wis
iting delegates, and husbands of lea
que members, invited the public to
hear Mrs. B. F. Saunders of Swan
Lake, president of the State League
of Women Voters and State General
Director of M. F. w. c., speak at the
hampton Auditorium.
Mrs. T.Brady, president of the
Brookhaven League presented to the
audience the other distinguished Wis
itors seated upon the platform, as
well as the speaker of the occasion.
They were Mrs, Katherine R. Covinge
ton of Summit, president of the Fed
GRAFTON of Women's Clubs; Mrs. A.
Fly, Summit, of the Federation Pro-
gram Committee; Mrs. ]. M. Powell,
Belzoni, Recording Secretary of the
Federation; Mrs. Lizzie George Hen
derson, Greenwood, of the Central
Committee of women's organizations
Of Mississippi; Mrs. l. L. Parsons,
Brookhaven, delegate of the Peripa-
tetics, and Mrs. Saunders who is d
former federation president as well
as leader of the League of Women
Voters of Mississippi.
Mrs. Brady, in her introduction of
Mrs. Saunders said that the Fedora
tion of Women's Clubs and the
League of Women Voters could never
be. widely different in aim, and that
club life had done much to prepare
women for citizenship.
Mrs. Covington in a brief speech
stated that she was thoroughly in
sympathy with the League of Wo-
men Voters, and that Mississippi
women had need of organizations
with the power of numbers behind
them.
Mrs. Saunders in beginning ac-
knowledged the flowers presented by
local club, the Peripatetics. She
said that there is room for both the
organizations referred to by Mrs.
Covington and Mrs. Brady, since the
League concentrates upon women's
new duties as citizens.
In part, the speaker stated that to
be better citizens we must be better
Christians, and that nine tenths of
Christ's. doctrines taught one how to
live in this world The vote is ones
voice in the government better
type of individual voter is needed for
better government.
In regard to Mississippi Mrs. Saun-
ders said that the state is on the
verge of bankruptcy, that it is one
of the most illiterate states in the
Union, that some of its railroads are
in jeopardy of their existence, that
the spread of loathsome diseases
threaten future generations.
The speaker said that of the bills
fostered by the Mississippi League
of Women Voters, the one establish
ing equal guardianship of children
by father and mother was passed at
the last sitting of the legislature;
the one requiring a health certificate
preliminary to marriage failed. The
one requiring the presence of wo-
men upon the text book commission
passed with amendments added in
the House. The Shepherd -Towner
bill will receive such support from
Mississippi as greatly to extend the
work for children and mothers.
She deplored the factionalism of
Mississippi which caused a candidate
to be selected mainly for ability to
beat some other candidate and a bill
to be judged by its origin, rather
than its merits.
Mrs. Saunders stated that the
League was non-partisam and non
factional; that three million of the
women of the United States belonged
to it; and that the late Dr. Anna
Howard Shaw and Mrs. Carrie Chap
man Gait were the leaders whose
thought developed the League Mrs.
Maud Wood Park is the present lead
er, with headquarters in Washington,
A selection by the High School Or
chestra, piano solo by Miss Hazel
Barge and vocal solo by Miss Josie
Frizell were given.
The stage was beautifully and ella
borately decorated in rose and white,
the federation colors. and a large de-
corative seal of the federation was
suspended above 1t.
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